A Masochistic girl and a Broken boy

by bigbook29

Maka Albarn is a lot of things. The daughter of a death scythe, straight-A student, an ill-tempered girl, a crazy masochist and more. She is not nice, nor is she weak. At least wasn't, till she meets a broken boy, with strange white blood. Warning: High adult themes, attempted rape and talk of abuse.

[An AU story, where every character either has a trait or an entire personality switched. Warning, their are subjects of sexual themes and torture here. This is just meant as another thing to get me back into writing once again. I hope you'll enjoy it and please tell me what you think with a review. Any criticism is good at this point.]

"Come on Maka, do you really gotten keep wasting your time with this guy?" Soul asks as he sees that his partner heading towards the dungeons of the DWMA. He could see the others around him agreed, with Kid even rolling his eyes as he was fixing Patty's tie, so it wasn't straight anymore. "I understand that you want to see him, but what would this be, the fourth time you've seen him this week alone since he's been captured."

Calling how they got him in those dungeons 'Captured' would be a real stretch. Honestly it was more along the lines of him just giving up if they were being honest with themselves. A very demeaning fact that everyone has been always willing to point out to them whenever possible. Even though they did succeed in stopping Medusa's group from unleashing the Kishin, that didn't mean that it still wasn't humiliating for them to have such trouble with it.

Especially for Maka and Soul, who had been beaten before by one of their members. No matter how you try to re-arrange it, losing to a pink-hair cross-dresser with mommy issues is always gonna sound bad. Even if said pink-hair cross-dresser is literally tough enough withstand a building falling on him.

Maka need to hold herself from rolling her eyes as she sees the rest of her friends giving her judgmental looks. "Maka, you should really be careful. He's still very dangerous, an-" "Oh shut up, Black Star." Maka bites back, stopping the soft-spoken teen before he could continue speaking. "I can do, whatever I want, last time I check. I beat him, I get to see my trophy whenever I want!" She growls out, angerly. Her dark green eyes glaring back at them with sheer annoyance.

Tsubaki, as usual, was the first to say something back. Always being there to defend her partner, as she loudly barks out. "HEY, you can't talk to him like that!" The taller girl steps forward with an angry look on her face, looking inching for a fight like she usually does. Always wanting to show off how strong she was and wanting to go straight to settling things with her fist because she wasn't smart enough for a good comeback.

"Don't blame him because you didn't get a chance to settle the score."

This was not one of those times.

"I BEAT HIM!" Maka shouts back, earning looks at her from other students passing through the halls of the DWMA. Though most just saw this as another one of 'Albarn's episodes' and kept going with their lives.

Tsubaki crosses her arms as gave a raised eyebrow at the shorter girl. "I'm pretty sure, making the poor kid fall and cry on the floor because you told him his mom is dead, doesn't count as a 'win'. It's just sad. Especially considering that only happened, because Daddy saved you aga-" Tsubaki doesn't get to finish as Maka's fist slams into her face.

The taller girl reals back for a moment, clutching her nose. "Ah- cheap shot!" Tsubaki cries out, taking out a shuriken from a punch on her leg. Maka responses by holding her fists up and showing a grin. "Ahh~ What kinda of ninja doesn't see one coming!?" She says back just before both she is grabbed and held back by Liz and Patty, Soul and Black-Star doing the same to Tsubaki.

"Okay-okay, enough." Kid calmly spoke as he steps between the two, holding his hands out defensively to ease the two. Of course, he must do so in such a way that the hands are as asymmetrical as possible, with one hand raised to level with Tsubaki's face, and the other at level with Maka's stomach and tilt at an angle. She really needs to find less weird friends. "Maka, we're just worried you're gonna do something reckless." Kid spoke as he fully turns to face Maka, letting Soul and Black-Star talk Tsubaki down for him. "Is this about what happened at the church, still?"

Maka immediately knew what he was talking about. She hated how that had gotten out. It was just meant to be another mission, another damn thing to get closer to making Soul into a Death Scythe and what happened? She just happened to be at that church and meet…him.

That stupid cross-dressing moron. That stupid STRONG cross-dressing moron. He didn't just beat them, he destroyed them. Maka could still clearly remembers what had happened to her and her partner, Soul. How he beat them both down without looking to break a sweat.

How every swing she made with Soul was like trying to cut a metal door down with a baby carrot.

She remembers seeing Soul with a massive cut along his chest, so much of his blood on the floor. And what did his Meister do to fight back? She crumbled to the floor, with tears in her eyes and piss leaking through her panties, trying to push open a door that only moved inward, while she was holding her dying partner like a teddy bear.

Getting home only made it worst. Her father thought it best to spread the word of what happened, to tell everyone about how 'well' his daughter did. How scared she got, and how much she cried on the way home.

She still heard it sometimes in the halls, the snickering that people had, and the low whispers they made behind her back. It was one thing, when it was that stupid sexually repressed cat, at least they got a pet out of that ordeal and still won in the end. This was much worst; this was something that made her feel weak.

Maka Albarn is not weak!

"All of you can go to hell." Maka growls as she rips her arms away from the blonde sisters and begins to head to the dungeons, the grin quickly leaving her face as she saw there wasn't gonna be a fight, making her fist tightly clenched together at her side. Liz places a hand over her hat and gives out a small whine. "Jeez, she's really been getting angry a lot, hasn't she?" Patty just gives her older sister a shrug, not knowing what to tell her.

Soul spoke up as soon as he sees Maka turn a corner and leave their sight. "Yeah, she's been pretty weird lately. Well weirder than usual. She's even stopped…hurting herself." This did cause the others to turn to him with shock looks. "Yeah, I know, the biggest masochist I know, and she doesn't even react anymore when she's cut. Been going through a lot of bandages because of it. Now she doesn't even try anymore. It's wack man."

"Okay, now I'm really starting to get worried." Kid says as he raises a hand to his chin, wondering if maybe he should talk to someone about this. "She just needs a therapist!" Liz chimes in with her usual cheerful smile, with Patty giving a scoff as she looks to her nails. "Liz, everyone in this group needs a therapist."

As Maka heads down to the dungeon, she ignores the many looks that she is given from the students that overheard her yelling at her friends. They were scum, all of them. Pieces of living trash on a good day, and waste of space on any other. She couldn't stand them, going on and on about their problems. Meanwhile she can't sleep.

At all.

Ever since that night at the church she's been getting nothing but nightmares. Nightmares of 'him'. Beating her down, breaking her body and soul. Sometimes the others would be there, her 'friends'. They would watch it happen silently. Their bright eyes were all that could been seen around the dark church to witness her as she is on the floor just watching with those gleeful eyes. Or worst, sometimes they would point and laugh.

Laugh at her as she was on the floor, begging for someone to help her.

"God damn it!" Maka shouts out as she slams her fist against a wall. The pain was numb to her fury. She hated feeling weak, she hasn't cried in years, ever since her mother and father took that stupid divorce and she was proud of that. She didn't cry, Maka Albarn does not cry.

Or at least, didn't.

Then he made her weak, he made her cry. He beat her down.

Maka didn't understand. She used to like pain. It was fun. When she was younger, she would hurt herself all the time as a kid. Her mother, constantly trying to baby her, and her father not giving the least of a damn. She wanted pain, the feeling of such a shock going through her system used to always bring her such a sense of euphoria. Now it was all dull to her.

When she first partner with Soul, and they had tried to be a 'couple', she had tried to mix the two together. That didn't go well and was the deal breaker for them, cause apparently putting himself inside her was okay, but not her knife.

They are still friends and partners, and Maka was fine with just being that. It didn't really mean anything when they went out or tried to have 'intimate'. Although that did change a bit when Blair came into their lives. The cat being as pure as a nun was apparently a real turn on for the guy, and it didn't help that she had a body that would put super models to shame. Maka honestly called 'magic' on that nonsense.

It's not that she'd blame Soul on not liking it, but it still was annoying to see him apparently like getting talked down as a sinner by a nun, while shaming her.

Pain was just something that she enjoyed, honestly it confused her on why more people didn't like it. There were so many different types, that it was impossible to pick which was her favorite. All that mattered was the rush, the feeling of her heart racing, the thrill of how her muscles tighten, how she lifts her head back to scream.

It used to feel so good. Now all it reminded her of what happened. The pain she felt there, was unlike any other pain. The pain of feeling helpless. Of being weak. She hated it. She hated him for making her feel this way.

So, it was only fair, that she made him feel like that too.

---

"Maka, why am I not surprised?" Dr. Stein calls out in his usual gleeful tone, happy as ever to see one of his favorite students entering lower levels of the DWMA's dungeon. Maka gives a smile as she sees the mad doctor. One of the only people that she believes can really 'get' her. "Hello Dr. Stein, what are you doing here? Dissecting that werewolf again?" She says playfully as she crosses her arms and gives a smug look on her face.

Stein holds a hand onto his forehead with a fake shock expression, along with an equally fake gasp. "How did you know? Oh, my goodness, if my favorite student found out, that must mean that everyone else knows. Oh dear, I am gonna be in so much trouble." The two shared a laugh at that.

Lord Death didn't care a bit for such a thing, in fact, he didn't care about anything. Just that everyone did their job and not give him more work than he already had, he was fine with Dr. Stein and others like him, doing anything they pleased with all the kinds of people the DWMA dealt with.

Be they human, Kishin, or Witch.

He was Death after all, why would he at all care about anything? Maka even got a little disappointed that they stopped the Kishin from waking up. Meant that they never get a chance to see Death finally fight something…although from what Stein told them, it most likely just be a repeat of what happened before. With Death ripping the flesh from that it, tearing off each of its limbs, along its tongue, ears, eyes, nose, taking every single kind of experience away from it so that it would be forced to never escape it's crime and never feel Death's cold embrace for all entirety. Living out its miserable immortal life as a limbless senseless thing for the rest of time.

Honestly, what was Medusa thinking? Even if they did bring it back to life, what about all its missing pieces, where they just gonna make it grow new ones? The thought just made Maka want to laugh even harder.

"So, Albarn…what exactly are you doing down here?" Stein asks as he begins to calm down. The screw on his head turning slightly on its own, as usual, filling the hallway with it's strange creaking sound.

"Nothing more than to visit my trophy." She tells him back, sounding proud of herself for such a thing. Though it was quickly cut down as see sees how Stein reacts to her. "Ah…the…Demon Swordsman." Stein spoke, but notably his smile dropped to a more, shameful look. A look that Maka had never seen on the Mad Doctor's face.

Even the screw in his head stopped turning.

"Hey…you didn't do anything to him, did you?" Maka growls out annoyingly as she stomps forward, with Stein taking steps back as he held his arms up defensively. "I told you that he was MINE!" She shouts, her small pupils glaring daggers right at Stein, her hands closed to fists and they were visible beginning to shake.

That was not fair. She was the one that beat him, only she gets to be the one to play with him. And here Stein was now starting to hog in on her turf. She may like the guy, and felt he was good at giving pain, but there were just some lines you never cross. Taking someone else's plaything, was right up the top of that list for her.

Like taking someone else's lover.

Looking a little shocked, Stein keeps his hands held up as he spoke. "Whoa, whoa, slow down. I…I didn't do anything to him. But I did visit him. I may be a 'unique' kind of doctor Maka, but I am still a doctor." He then moves one of his hands up and begins to turn the screw on his head manually. "And while I may cut one or two up, the prisoners here are still my patients and well, they've been here for over two months now, so a checkup would be needed and…"

He stops. He stops right there in the sentence. He couldn't even meet Maka's eyesight anymore as instead he just looks to the floor. A look of anger was there, Maka could see by how tightly he was turning his screw, but what really confused her was how sad he looked as well. Downright remorseful over something.

"I think maybe you…should hold off a bit on your visits with Crona. He's in a real bad spot." A very un-like Stein sentence was just thrown at her. Where was the man who easily brushed off an attack of her and Soul's 'Witch-Hunt', who electrocuted Tsubaki's brain just to teach Black-Star a lesson on fight back more, who teased her with the thought of cutting her open.

"Bad spot? What the hell does that even mean?! Did he hurt himself trying to escape?" Maka shouts, with her eyes darting passed Stein to further down the halls, knowing that is where her trophy was.

Stein moves a hand to rub at his eyes. "I wish it was something like that." He mumbles so low, that Maka couldn't even hear him. She was too off in her own rage now, and she continued to yell at him. "I can't believe that you of all people are telling me to hold back on someone, how many people and animals have you cut open, just this week alone!"

Maka throws her hands up animatedly, with Stein taking another step back. Dealing with Maka in a good mood was already a hassle, dealing with her when she was angry was another story all together.

"I get that, but this is different. Crona-" He tried to speak up, only for Maka to cut him off. "And when did THAT start?! What happened to just Demon Swordsman? Since when were you on a first name basis with him."

"Maka please, you need to understand-" "I can't believe this. I can't believe YOU." She shouts again, before stomping right passed him.

"Maka, wait, Crona-" Maka simply just flips him off and continues to walk on forward without even a glance back. "Shut up and go die!" For a moment Stein looked as if he was going to follow her but stops himself as he gives off a sigh. He knew that he needed to head elsewhere now.

He needed to talk to Death about the poor boy.

---

She just couldn't believe it. Stein of all people. First her friends and now him. What was next, her father, Death himself telling her to stop seeing her prize. To stop trying to enjoy what she had earn. She hated them, she hated them all. She was so lost in her mental ranting that she didn't even realize she was pacing outside the door for a full minute. It was just another large metal dungeon door, like the rest in the hall, with only two slots that lead inside, one to see through and another to slide food through the bottom. Though it was just like the many others down this hall, Maka knew for sure that this was 'his' room.

"Okay…deep breaths." She softly tells herself, as she tries to calm down. Trying to push away her harsh thoughts on everyone around her, so she can actually enjoy herself again. She didn't want them to be the ones to ruin her evening. After a few seconds, a wide smile forms on her face as she excited to see her trophy again. She sees the keys that were on the hook next to the door, and happily takes them.

Knowing she was gonna need them for later.

Undoing the large metal latch on the door, Maka moves to open it…but pauses as she takes a moment to look at herself. She straights her skirt, and even her usual crooked tie. Even going as far as to make sure her pigtails weren't completely messy, and one wasn't bigger than the other. She doesn't really care about how about how she looked normally but, this was different.

He was different. She wanted him to see her different.

Opening the heavy doorway, she was greeted with one of her favorite sights of all time. The Demon Swordsman, bond by chains at the wrist that were pinned to the wall above his head, as he was slumped along the floor.

Weak and pathetic, as he should be.

He didn't even turn to look at her as she entered the room and close the door behind her. Not like she was being subtle; the metal door gave out a heavy slam as she closed it. He stayed at his spot, without so much as a glance. His white outfit was dirty, lack of washing and being in this dungeon being the reason why. The cuffs on his wrist were crumbled and unbutton, showing some small scaring on his wrists, some looking fresher than others, probably the shackles digging into it.

His pink-haired was still bright though, showing he was bathing a bit. Or rather he was letting Sid use the hose on him. Maka remembers how she tried again and again to asks the zombie to let her do it. That she would happily take at least one burden off him, but the dead man would just tell her that it wouldn't be comfortable for her.

She honestly had no idea what he was talking about. Not like she never seen a dick before, the internet exists after all, so even if she didn't have Soul, there was still that. Really, it's weird that the zombie would tell her it was uncomfortable. The man was dead and tries periodically to eat someone's brains every five seconds, what did he know what was comfortable or not.

Pushing all those thoughts to the side, Maka begins to walk up to her trophy.

"Hiiiii honey~, I'm home." She calls out, with her voice instantly sounding bubblier as she leans herself down towards his face. He tries to hide it, but he does flinch as she gets close. "Aw~, did you miss me?" She doesn't get an answer as a ripping sound is heard, and with a noticeable twitch from the chained Crona, his back is torn open as a strange creature is formed from the opening.

"Not this wench as well. First, the trails hath brought by the doct'r, anon h'r?! Crona, I hest yond thee breaketh us out of h're this instan-" She hated this guy. For a lot of reasons. Be it his weird 'accent', how he forms from Crona's blood, that he was Crona's weapon partner, that his voice sounded like he sucked in a can of helium wrong. Though he had some redeeming quality as he looked cute in his small tiny form. Too bad she wasn't in the mood to talk to him.

Without another word, Maka slams the back of her fist directly to the face creature made of white blood. Its strange condensed liquid body felt like jelly, but it was still solid enough to feel pain as its small body was slammed against the stone wall Crona was leaning on.

"Ah! how dareth thee striketh me thee scum sucking pig soweth!" Ragnarok cries out in his regal deep voice, with Maka making a move to punch him again, only for Crona to suddenly pick himself up, and moving in the way of her and the thing that came from his back. While the chains kept his hands above his head, but Maka knew better.

She seen him break tougher stuff with his bare hands.

"You don't get to hurt him." He spoke in a low tone with his mixed colored eyes glaring right at her. They were another thing Maka hated about him. Those sad eyes, that we just screaming sympathy. For someone to put him out of his misery.

Even the colors couldn't make up their mind.

His left eye was a deep navy-blue color, while his right was a very pale grey color. Mix that with the pink hair and white robe, and Maka honestly wanted to force him to go through Patty and Liz style make-over. Though even she wasn't that cruel.

Without even looking away from her, Crona whispers to his partner to go back inside till she leaves.

The Demon Sword stares back at his partner angerly. "What?! And alloweth this soweth to humiliate thee agai-" "Ragnarok please!" Crona cries out again, this time breaking his line of sight on Maka as he gives partner a pleading look. "I don't like you getting hurt, j-just please." He begs, his voice becoming softer and shaky the more he spoke.

For a moment, Ragnarok looks at his Meister and then back to Maka. The girl just silently glaring back at him with an angry expression. He should know the rules by now. When she visited, she didn't want to so much as see his face unless she says so. "And hither I was, joyous that we were free, tis but a fantasy as we are just a different kind of prisoner." He mumbles, just low enough that Maka barely was able to make out what he said before he reformed into Crona's body, leaving the two teens alone.

"Much better." Maka spoke happily, as she claps her hands together. "So, guess who I ran into in the hall. The doc himself. Apparently, he ran a little 'check-up' on you." She says as she takes a step closer, forcing Crona to press himself further against the wall, even trying to lower himself as if trying to look smaller.

Maka leans back as she scoffs at him. It's not like he was going anywhere. He was pathetic. Looking so nervous as she was staring down at him. How his eyes were quivering as they take quick glances at her, bracing himself for her, as if she was going to hit him. Wouldn't be the first time she tried that though. He was pathetic.

Everything about him was pathetic and sad.

How he shook, how the fear grew in his unmatched eyes, how the chains held his arms up so he couldn't cover his face in that ridiculous fetal position she seen him take for the hundredth time. Leaving him to just draws his legs closer to his chest and pushes his forehead against the knees. The chains softly shook from his movement.

The chains were in idea from her. Just a joke that she pressured Sid into allowing. All she wanted to see was him chained up, so that he would look weak. What she didn't expect was for it to last so long, that he was okay allowing such a thing to happen with him.

"So Crona, what was it that Screw head wanted from you?" Maka asks casual as she places her hands at her sides, keeping an eye on Crona's every move. He knew exactly who she was talking about as his eyes twitched frightfully.

"…H-His name is Frank-" He tries to correct her, but Maka stomps her foot down, the dungeon's stone flooring letting the echo of the noise loud enough to cut him off. He was scared. Good.

He calls Stein by his first name, Stein of all people! She has been the one visiting him, she has been the one to spend her precious time to meet and talk to him, she has been the one sacrificing her study time for this, it's gonna so bad she got a 'B' on her last quiz. Already she can hear Kim giggling at her as she sees the grade. The bitch would even have the nerve to try and tutor her.

But it was nothing compared to the feeling that just came to her chest. A hollow feeling that she did not like. Just the thought of Stein, of all people, after one visit being able to make Crona call him by his first name as if they were friends.

With a single visit.

The word 'mad' didn't cut it. Not even 'furious' or 'livid', all of those were just embers compared to the amount of rage burning through her right now. All he would do was barely talk when she visits, never even address her as anything. No nicknames, no insults, nothing. The closest she ever got was 'you'.

And yet STEIN was called by his name.

She hated him, she hated him. She hated this feeling that HE made her feel. She knows he caused it. Even in chains, he was making her feel weak.

"SO, it really is first name with you two…that's…nice." Maka growls out, her eyes notably giving a twitch as she holds her hands behind her back, squeezing the fingers of her left hand as she tries to hold herself back from straight up punching the boy.

If she did that, it might as well be him winning. He would know he got to her.

Not like she even could hurt him anyway. Annoy him, sure, but actually harming him? Black Star and Tsubaki cave-in an entire section of the underground tunnel right on him.

All that did was given him off a headache.

His white blood made hurting him next to impossible. Even if they were to somehow get passed its ability to harden itself, it could also heal at a very fast rate. She straight up saw her father's scythe blade go right through his chest, and hole close like nothing happened. Even Dr. Stein 'Soul menace' ability wasn't working on him when he finally arrived. Unlike back at the church, it just…didn't affect him for some reason.

And yet, what took him down was her telling him how Stein had killed Medusa.

Back then, she and the others had traveled ahead. Managing to get by Medusa, and all of them were held back by this boy. Even when Stein did show up, it didn't fare much better. They were getting more hits in, but it was like three spoons and knife trying to take down a break wall. And he was not letting them pass. If she hadn't said what she did, if she hasn't tried to get under his skin the first time as they were in mid-clash of their partners.

He probably would have killed of them just by outlasting them.

She didn't mean to win that way. She just wanted to say something to him. To try and get that sad look off his face. She just wanted a reaction out of him.

'Come on, you got to be a little nervous? The snake witch is dead after all, so no one is gonna help you this time!'

It was a stupid thing to say, especially considering SHE was saying it after she was saved last time. What she didn't expect was for him to freeze up, for him to start targeting just her. He was asking her what she meant. Even as the others tried to back her up, he just kept getting back up and heading straight for her. Stein was the one to confirm it.

When he did, Crona fell to his knees and started crying on the spot.

…they didn't know she was his mom.

After that, the boy didn't so much as twitch as they gone passed him, all fight in him was gone. Even when they beat the toad witch and the werewolf, he stayed there. Almost like he was waiting to be captured.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as he tries to explain. "He was…checking my blood. Wanted to see what else it could-" "Do you know my name?" Maka honestly didn't even hear what he was saying. The question just popped in her head and out her mouth so quickly that there wasn't even time to notice Crona talking.

Crona holds his head up and gives a little confuse head tilt at the sudden question. "My name, did I ever tell you it? Did anyone tell you it?" Getting a small 'Uhh…' in responds, Maka leans close and slaps her right hand on the wall, right above his head, shouting. "Answer me!"

"I-I mean…I heard people call you Maka. Is…is that your name? M-Maka?" He says back, his eyes quickly looking back and forth from the hand above his head and her face. The chains rattled slightly as he tried to shift himself away, but Maka didn't pay that any mind.

Pulling herself away, she begins mumbling under her breath. "I guess it's fair, we've never really gotten a full introduction." She turns her back to the boy, giving out a small groan as she sees she accidentally dislocated two fingers when she held them behind her back.

"Uhh…s-so Mr. Stein-" Make stops him again, without even turning to look at him. "Doctor! He did not bust his ass working hard to get a degree in legal murder, just so you can call him mister! He is Dr. Stein, or Frank seeing as your so buddy-buddy with him!" She growls at the end as she pops her ring finger back into place, the pain runs through her hands.

And it felt dirty. Didn't have any 'spark' to it, it just hurt.

Just as Maka pops her pinkie back into place, she notices how Crona became quiet. So quiet that it let the sound of the bone popping into place rang out across the whole room. Maka's eyes widen at that, and for a moment she became tense.

He is going to say something, he is going to know what happen, figure her out, mock her, call her what she is.

Weak.

Her nerves immediately began to stir. The thought of Crona's soft voice calling out to her, a smug smile on his face, a gleeful look in his eye. All while he was still chained up to a wall, even in such a state, he had this power over her.

She could almost hear her own heartbeat thumping in her head at such thoughts, almost completely distracting her as Crona calls out.

"A-are you mad at me?"

Any fear that Maka had quickly died. As if like a rubber band her senses were snap back into place. She places her hand over her chest, and even through her clothing, she could feel her heart was racing a bit still. "What is wrong with me?" She whispers to herself.

It was just odd, even for her. She knows she could get easily excited before, but that was only when new types of pain were discovered. Like when she found out about Stein's 'Soul Menace' technique. Even followed him around for hours trying to make him use it on her.

Having Sid walked in on her being electrocuted by Stein was not a fun experience. Especially seeing as she…left a 'mess' on the floor because of it. Tsubaki heard of that and made diaper jokes for a week after that.

Her mind was trailing off again, only catching itself as she looks to Crona.

His face showed everything she hated about him.

His soft face, those pleading mix-colored eyes that looked close to tears, that dainty nose, and those…dry lips. Really dry lips.

"I…I'm not mad at you." Maka says as she tries to push her mind on a single track, but her eyes do not leave his lips. The boy just squirms a little, under her intense gaze. The chains on his wrist rattle a bit, and Maka turns to look at them with pure annoyance.

While she loved to see him like this, a part of her hated those chains as well. Mainly because it was stupid. Especially seeing as he would just let them keep him like this. It was a joke, supposed to last for maybe a day or two. She had seen Crona break apart an entire stone pillar with a single punch, and a four-foot long rusted chain with shackles that Sid found in Stein's closet were the things stopping him from breaking out? Maka knew it was useless, Stein knew it was useless, Death himself knew it was useless, above all else, Crona knew it was useless.

Yet he still let Sid take him out of his bed every day and place him with those chains during his 'visiting hours'. It used to be just when Maka came over, but now seeing as Maka was coming so often, he was just leaving the boy chained against the wall all day, and not even having the decency to keep a cup of water for him to drink nearby.

Meanwhile Crona, is just fully contempt with being in those chains, all day with no struggle, and even choosing to eat very little of the meals brought to him, instead opting to overfeed his partner all the damn time.

She couldn't wrap her head with it. Why would he do this? Was hearing that his mom was dead that much of a hit for him or was he always like this? Did he just love to suffer-

Maka's mind stops at that thought.

"Maybe…he's like me." She mumbles just under her breath. Her cheeks feeling warm at such a thing, as she places a hand over one of her skirt's small pockets.

Last week, she convinced Sid to just leave the keys by the door for her to uncuffs him during her visits. She prefers him like that because of how he moves to 'Mr. Corner', letting her box him to one spot as she messes with him, and he just straight up lets her. And now, it was starting to make a little sense why.

She gives a smile as she thinks back to all her other visits. Her first visit was the day after their fight, Lord Death giving them all a 'day to not bug him'. Most of her friends spent it hanging out, while Maka came here. She would just mock him, make fun of how he was capture and how his mother was dead because he was weak.

The second time was day after, where she tried to do the same thing, but saw he was starting to shut himself off. Ignore her. Since then, she decided to try other ways to bugging him.

His blood made it hard to really hurt him, so she needed to get creative. One day she threw rocks at him the whole time, another day she forced feed him Soul's cooking, one time she just threw water on him just to watch him shiver…though that didn't end well as his white robe became a little see-through.

That was awkward, especially for Maka when she kept catching herself staring.

Yet of course, when she told her friends of these little games, they all began to scream and yell at her about her being stupid all the sudden. She remembers, the argument with Soul alone lasting all the way from lunch to when they were back at their apartment, and the rest of them constantly giving her looks the entire time.

Those judgmental looks that claim that they all suddenly thought they knew better than her.

Oh sure, a loud ninja, a soft-spoken moron, a reaper that hated when things are orderly, two blond bimbos, and a perverted dork, all apparently know more than her when it comes to this exact thing. If this was a joke, it be funny, but it isn't. No instead, they are treating her as if SHE is the joke.

"As if I'm the weird one." She mumbles, and before she had realized it, Maka had moved to lean against the wall, right next to Crona, her eyes just looking down at him while she was in her thoughts. She barely even notices how her being so close cause Crona to let out a scared squeak, or how he was trying to hide himself by pushing his knees up to his chest and press his head into them again.

The boy still has his hands held up over his head, it's not like he could hide much.

Though, Maka did never like it when he gets like this. She hates to admit it, but she likes seeing his stupid face. She likes seeing the pleading look in his eye, the little wiggle of his nose, the look on his face when she showed him what she brought to mess with him today.

What she brought…

"Oh…come on!" Maka growls as she has a realization. Her friends pissed her off so much, that she forgot to go to her locker and get the bag of spiders she bought yesterday. She was planning on throwing them on Crona and watching him freak out as they climb over him.

And just like that, her friends seem to continue to rain on her parade. Giving another growl under her breath, Maka quickly begins to pat herself down to try and find what she could use to mess with Crona. She was on a roll with constantly coming up with brand new ideas, she didn't want to stop now.

Her hardcover copy of "The big book of pain" was good for a chop on a normal person, but on Crona it would just be like hitting him with a deflated balloon. She had the keys for his cuffs…but aside of him moving to his corner, what else was there?

Maka was starting to look visibly mad now. Grinding her teeth as she tightly closes her hands to fists. What was she to do, leave and come back with the spiders? They probably broke out of the bag by now, with Sid setting the hallway on fire to get rid of them…

Which probably didn't happen, but knowing her luck, Maka wouldn't be surprised.

She had no other options though. All she had on her were the keys, her favorite book, and a tube of lip balm that she stole from Patty just because she was being annoying today.

"Wait…lip balm". Maka softly says as she reaches to her other pocket and pulls out the tube. Honestly, she had completely forgotten she taken the thing, doing so at lunch just to watch the younger Thompson get annoyed at losing the thing.

But now that she had it, a certain thought comes back to Maka. One revolving around a certain boy's dry lips.

Looking towards him, Maka was pleased to see he was peaking back at her. A little gasp escapes him as he quickly pushes his face against his knees and tries in vain to look smaller.

"Hey…Crona~" Maka calls out, squatting down next to him and grinning as he sees him flinch at being called by his name in such a teasing tone. "Want to play a game?"

"…no, please." He mumbles back, his voicing giving a little quiver as he spoke.

Leaning herself closer to the boy, she starts to whisper to his ear. "Aw, come on. There is nothing to be scared of." She grins as she sees Crona shiver a bit. He should be happy though; this is the first time she is giving him a choose. Though it's not like she'd listen if he said no. "Why don't I make it interesting, hmm? You play this game with me, and I get you something for next time I visit. Just for you to have."

Like a fish on a hook.

"Y-you'll…get me something?" He asks, turning his head a bit to see her. His eyes looking to just widen in surprise at such a thought, nearly sparkling in wonder

"Yep. Think of it as a present. Just as long as your reasonable. I like to get you the moon, but I only got about a few dollars under my pillow." She tells him, being honest with him too as really, she doesn't have much money. Having to help Black-Star pay for fixing nearly everything Tsubaki breaks is a pain.

Crona looks back to his knees, obviously trying to think with Maka not taking her eyes off him the entire time. She could see that he was really putting thought into it. How his eyes were giving small twitches, and his nose gave an adorable little wiggle like a hamster.

She didn't make a sound or try to break his concentration. She just watched him in her squatting position with a hand under her chin. "…c-…can you bring some candy." He finally asks, as he turns back to her. The pleading in his eyes was there and without thinking Maka begins to mumble. "Why, you're sweet enou- I mean!" She quickly catches herself, standing straight back up and showing her back to the boy so he couldn't see her face turn red. "Candy, huh? Well, why didn't you tell me you had a sweet tooth earlier." She forces out, giving out a fake chuckle as she walks in front of him, while keeping her back to him. "Would have made it more fun to throw jellybeans at you instead of rocks."

She holds a hand over her face, while also giving out a low 'oh god' under her breath. Not believing for a second what she had said to him. Of all the things she had done, flirting was never on her mind, and if it were, why would it be with such a dumb line like that.

And why even for Crona, the same person that made her feel so weak, so pathetic when he had cut open her partner. Of all people. It's just-

"It's not for me." Crona's words came in, and snap Maka out of her thoughts once more. And immediately Maka knew what, or rather who, he was talking about. Slowing turning to look at him, she gave a raised eyebrow look.

"Seriously? Come on, forget your partner for a minute here." She fully turns to him and leans herself down to get a closer look at him. Surprisingly, for once, he wasn't flinching away. "What do YOU want me, to get you?"

"…e-ether get him candy o-or…no deal." Crona stutters out, trying to look imposing as best he could while his hands were in chains above his head, and he was sitting on the floor.

Part of Maka wanted to raise her foot up and slam it to his head, but another part of her was focused at that look he gave her. She only seen him do it once before, and that was back underground when they fought before. He was actually being determined about this. About candy of all things.

Rolling her eyes at such an eye, they land onto his lips. Still dry and in need on some attention.

Without thinking Maka lightly moves her tongue along her own, before giving a shrug. "Fine. Candy for the jerkwad it is." Crona quickly tries to add 'C-chocolate. It needs to be Chocolate.' With Maka giving him a light kick to his shin in responds. "Don't push it."

Taking a deep breath, she places her hands on her hips and clears her throat.

"Okay then, now that the deal is set up, here's the game. It's a very simple called, queen says. I am gonna tell you to do something…and you do it. Easy, right?" Maka spoke as crosses her arms. Crona looks wary at that. "What happens when I don't do what you tell me?" He asks.

Maka holds a hand along her chin. "Well…suddenly the next visit is gonna have less candy then you think." She smiles as she sees how much Crona's eyes widen at such a thing. "Shame, I was gonna get a big bag of the stuff too."

The utter look of defeat he has on his face, was literally priceless for her. "O-okay…"

"Yes! Queen says: 'lay your legs flat on the floor so she can sit on them.'" "W-what?"

Maka had to hold a hand over her mouth, literally holding back the burst of laughter that form from hearing Crona's voice creak at the sudden request. Taking a moment to compose herself as best she can, she looks down at him with a large grin. "You heard me. Just lay your legs on the floor, like you were earlier. Relax, stop looking to bunched up. After that, I'll sit on them."

Crona does as she asks, slowly. With his legs lay out against the floor, Maka places a foot on either side of his thigh. She pauses for a moment, noticing how his head was at level with her skirt and also saw how the boy was keeping his eyes shut as tightly as possible. Was he really that scared of her sitting on him?

"Why am I not surprised?" Maka mutters as she lets lowers herself down onto his lap. She kept her eyes right on his face for a reaction. She was not disappointed. Sweat was forming on his brow, his eyes tighten themselves even further like he was expecting a punch. Maka reposition herself. Placing herself so that she would be right on top of his crotch.

She wanted to see his reaction to that, most of all. Would he get even more scared, and throw her off? Or would he get excited, and his body 'react'? Honestly, Maka didn't know which she preferred.

"Queen says: 'present your face'…that means look at me." Though hesitant, Crona slowly opens his left eye, followed by his right. He obviously sees the position Maka was in. Reclined, with her arms behind her. Her legs at either side of him, almost as if locking him in. As if the chains on his wrist weren't enough.

Crona's different colored eyes slowly move. Trailing along her body, as if taking her in. Though aside of a small quivering breath, he didn't react much at all to what was happening. Disappointing

For a moment, Maka wondered if she should lift her skirt up and let him see her panties. But considers against it, for all she knew that would end with either a disaster or a really great time. And neither of those were the reason she was doing what she was.

"Queen says: 'Don't move'." Maka reaches into her pocket and takes out the tube of lip balm. She watches as Crona's eyes widen and his pupils start to shake, yet surprisingly, she didn't so much as feel a quiver from him. Credit where it was due, he was good at following orders. Even as she leaned forward, and placed a hand on his cheek, he didn't so much as twitch. The only part of him that did was his eyes, as they quickly looked back and forth from the hand to her.

He was really gonna earn that candy it seems.

Knocking open the tube with her thumb, Maka begins to apply the lip balm. Again, no twitch, to change in speed of his breathing, nothing. He was completely still. Which is why it he scared the hell out of her as suddenly he spoke up perfectly, without even moving his mouth open.

"What is that?" "AH!"

She pulls herself back so harshly she nearly falls off him while Crona still doesn't move at all.

"W-what how did you- I didn't even…your lips didn't even mov-…" Crona blankly stares at her, as if not even realizing what he did wrong. After all, he was still following orders. Maka looks off to the side and gives a slight cough, and mumble 'Okay that's creepy' under her breath.

She then shows Crona the tube.

"Lip balm…meant to make your lips look healthier, something that wouldn't be an issue if a certain someone was taking better care of themselves." Maka cannot help but give a knowing glare at that. One that Crona didn't flinch from. He was really good at this. "Fine…queen says: 'you can move again'."

Almost immediately the shivering was back, with Crona open and closing his mouth slightly. Briefly Maka can see his tongue slide out for a moment to taste the lips new coating. It was forked, kinda like a snake.

Why did she find that so cute?

"I-It taste awful!" Crona recoils in disgust, with his head shoving itself back from shock.

"Oh, don't whine, it's meant to be healthy." "B-but it's really bad!"

"Aw, you're such a baby." "I-I'm not."

"You gonna cry~" "I mean it."

"Wah-wah!" "You t-try it then!"

That was enough to make Maka blink. Shocked at how Crona raised his voice a little for that. Never being one to be put on the spot, Maka just tells him back. "Fine!" She grabs him by the collar and pulls him close, locking her lips with his…and almost immediately pulls away, spitting an awful taste from her mouth.

"What in the actual hell?!" Maka shouts as she looks at the tube of lipstick and sees the flavor of it. Plastered on it were the colorful words of 'Unicorn Farts' and was completed with a small picture of a uniform with green smoke coming out of its behind. "…I forget how weird Patty is sometimes." She mutters looking at the stupid image of the grinning unicorn.

She was glad to know those things were extinct.

Tossing the tube aside, Maka looks back to Crona, and jumps as she sees him. She thought he was pale before. His entire face looking nearly as white as his rube, back when it was clean. He looked like a literal casper ghost. For a moment, Maka wanted to ask what got him so spooked, before suddenly remembering of his white blood. She didn't notice because she was looking at the lip-balm, but he was blushing, very hard.

His eyes were fully widened, his ears were perk slightly, his mouth was open, and he was softly panting out of his mouth. Maka was so close that she could feel his warm breath on her lips. The boy looked in total shock, in complete disarray. His eyes weren't even focused on her anymore, just blankly staring forward.

Maka realized that she was still holding onto his collar. She also realized she wanted to kiss him again.

So, she did.

The terrible taste of the lip-balm was there but she forced herself through, her tongue entering his mouth as it forcibly assaulted whatever it could. There was no 'boom' or surge of electricity. Just wet, and messy. So much so that Maka could feel saliva trail down her chin, but she didn't want to stop.

She pulls her body as close she could to Crona's as she could, placing a hand on the back of his head while the other continued to tightly grip at the collar of his robe. Maka's body was propped up on her knees, trying to push herself closer to the boy. She wanted to feel each twitch, each shiver he made. Her fingers were clawing into the back of his head, and she was barely breaking to breath, only taking small gasp before moving mouth back against his.

She never grasped how much she wanted this. It was just a sudden spur of the moment. This was something she done with the likes of other boys she knew, even with Tsubaki once. But those were just pecks on the lips, nothing like this.

He made no move to stop her, even as she pushes him further against the wall, even as she starts to unbutton the collar and reach into his robe. Not even his tongue moved to resist hers. He was just letting her have full reign on him.

And she just wanted more.

"Hey, I brought some food for-oh…guess I lost the bet with Spirit."

That is what stops her. That is what makes her pull away. A line of drool dips down her lips, but she doesn't pay it much mind as she looks behind herself…and sees the Sid was at the doorway, holding a bag of some take out. "I'm too alive for this."

He groans out as places the food next to the doorway. "Uncuff him so he and his partner could eat and lock up when you're done." He tells them while giving a sigh as he closes the door. Then opens it up again immediately after. "Please don't make much of a mess, I just clean those sheets."

The door closes just before Maka's hardcover copy of the 'big book of pain' is thrown against it.

Her face was red, completely red. Her arm was still outstretched from her throwing her book as hard as she could. Her mind was blank as she just stared at the door, trying to process that just happened and what she was caught doing.

Slowly she turns back to Crona and sees that he still hasn't moved much since she first kissed him. "Um…Crona?" She softly asks, using her own tie to wipe at her mouth. He looked just as much a mess as she probably did. Drool was dripping from his mouth, and his collar was open…showing something along his neck.

She reaches to get a better look at it, only to become spooked as Crona suddenly speaks up. "What was that?" Maka quickly pulls her hand back as she sees his different colored eyes move towards her.

Hesitantly, Maka looks to the side as she answered. "Um…a kiss…" Taking a glance back to him, she sees him still staring at her. "You know, when two people lips touch…because they liked each other. Though I guess, you can call this…making out."

Was she nervous? Definitely. She wasn't sure what to do now. She just had this urged and she acted on it. She, of course, expected a response, maybe him shoving her or…as much as she be unwilling to admit, hopefully, he would kiss her back; but she was not expecting him to become so stiff, like some life-size doll.

"I…I don't understand." He says back, the shackles around his wrist rattle slightly as he tries to pull his hands down, but aside that, he made no other movement, not even to clean the saliva around his mouth.

He looked so lost. He wasn't disgusted, he wasn't excited, he was just confused. His eyes shifted from looking down at himself to her multiple times like he was trying to solve some riddle about it.

As much as she didn't want to say it. The words just slipped from Maka's mouth again, before she can stop herself. "You want to do it again?" Her words might as well have just been air passing through the wind, as Crona didn't even seem to acknowledge them at first.

The chains rattled above his head as he tried to move his arms again, but that was about it. His eyes moved away from her, towards the chains that held his hands. If it were anyone else, Maka might have been offended. Most boys would have been ecstatic to have a girl like her on their lap wanting to kiss them, a few would have loved to be in chains while doing so.

"Again? Should we? Wait when two people's lips touch because they-" He starts to speak with his words quickly becoming illegible as his words fell into mumbling under his breath as he tries really take in what just happened. There wasn't any fear like when he usual spoke. He just seemed straight up confused.

Maka rests her hands on her hips as she continues to watch Crona mumble. An unhappy expression on her face. Hoping that maybe he'll notice.

Which he doesn't. Still seemingly caught in his own spasm of words, that continue to spew out, and his eyes moving from the chains to down at himself, even giving a small twitch every now and again. Although that part, she didn't mind as much. Seeing him squirm was the reason she kept coming back.

However, her attention was taken somewhere else. The collar of his robe was still open, and with him pulling his head back and moving so much, she was able to get a better look at Crona's exposed skin.

Scars. That's what she could see. As far as she could tell, they weren't normal ones too.

She knows her kind of scars, from all the times she hurt herself before. Cuts, stabs, burns, those were easy to tell. This though, was something else. Something she couldn't place. And she wanted to touch it. To feel it.

Maka takes off the glove for her right hand and reaches out it for, so lost in her own little world that she doesn't even notice how quiet Crona suddenly became the moment she relived her hand.

A loud clash of metal being torn is heard, so suddenly and violent that it rang through the whole room.

Just like she thought.

Crona easily could break through those old shackles like they were made of styrofoam. And now, he was gripping her hand. Tightly.

There was no fear in his eyes, no panic anymore. Just a cold, menacing, glare staring back at her. His fingers were tightly gripping her palm. So tightly that a low gasp escapes her lips as a familiar surge came rushing in. Not of fear…but of excitement. Pain was running through her palm, a new exciting kind.

The spark was back. And she could feel a warm blush spreading along her face from it.

She tries to say something back to him, but he tightens his hold on her hand making her give out a low whimper. It just felt too good for her. "Shut up." He growls to her, with his voice in a low tone. For the first time, she ever heard him, his voice was filled with anger. He was very serious. "Who did this to you?"

He wasn't even looking at her, just her hand. The hand that was gripped tightly in his and was covered in old scars. "W-wha-" "Who, did this to you!?" He pulls her arm towards him, with such forced that it dragged Maka so that her forehead was pressed up right against his.

Making it so she was staring right into his eyes.

Maka could feel how sweaty she was becoming, and how she was finding it harder to breath. Her own heartbeat racing in her ears.

She was scared. He was making her scared again, just like he did with the church. Making her feel weak and powerless. But this time…Maka didn't seem to mind it. Almost reveling in how he was hurting her.

A part of her, the part that was scared, wanted to tell him it was from an accident, or how someone else cut up her hands. But the other part, the excited part, wonder what he would do if she told her the truth. Would he kill her? Would he be disgusted? Would he be excited? Would he hurt her?

There wasn't much to think about for a masochist.

"I-I did. I did this to myself." She brings up her other glove cover hand and uses her teeth to pull off the white cloth. Her other hand was just as scarred as the one Crona held on to. "I…I hurt myself."

"Why!?" He shouts, his voice suddenly filled with such anger that it easily bounces off the walls of the room into an echo. A more intense look on his face formed as he was visibly clenching his teeth together. Snarling like an animal.

Maka could feel her throat dry, and her heart somehow going faster. "I…I just do. I like pain…I love it. The rush, the feeling as blood leaks from you, as your skin burns. It's just been, something amazing for me."

"No one…is making you do this? No one hurt you?" Almost in an instant, his eyes soften, as if realizing what he was doing. He loosens his hold, letting Maka's hand fall from his grip. "I'm sorry." He whispers out, as he slowly pulls himself away from her touch. Pressing himself against the wall with a regretful look on his face as he turns away to look at the ground. "W-when Dr. Stein was here, we talked…about you."

That's a shock. I mean, she expected him to talk with Stein, but about her? Maka didn't know why, but she couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed. Who knows what Stein told him, after all. He was the kind of guy who tends to overshare. "You're Maka Albarn. Daughter of the Death Scythe. He…he told me that you two didn't have…I thought that maybe…"

"You thought he hurt me, didn't you?" Maka asks, with her eyes snapping to look to the boy. If her interest was piqued before, now it was full attached to him. The thought of him getting angry. She only just got a glimpse at such a thing. Even during her two fight against him.

The second fight alone, where he beat her, and her friends was him only being annoyed at best. Shooting him point bleak in the eyes, trying to cut his head off, trying to shock him into submission. He would just get back up or heal like nothing happened just two seconds after. Even when Maka revealed that Medusa was killed. He barely even raised his voice. "Tell me…what if he had? What would you do?"

"Nothing." He tries to push it off, but she wouldn't let him. "Liar. I saw, how mad you got. I saw that look in your eye. You wanted to make my dad hurt. You really care about m-" She tries to speak up, a blush spreading along her face again. She didn't know how to describe it, but the thought of Crona seeming to care made her feel such a warmth inside she can barely describe.

She stopped though as Crona slams the back of his free hand against the wall. The stone wall easily creaking apart from his strength.

"I just hate it okay! No, parent should…hurt their children…they shouldn't. They just shouldn't." He voiced was raised for a moment, but it quickly turns quiet the more he spoke. That is when Maka looks to the hand he kept on the wall, and payed more attention to the scars there. As well as the ones on his open collar.

She questions for a moment why they were there? With his ability to heal it doesn't make sense. And with that reaction. Granted, of course no parent should hurt their kid, but with how angered he was of it. It was personal to him. Like he was…

An idea started to form in Maka's head. An awful idea that she almost didn't want to say out loud but needed to know. "Did Medusa hurt you?" Crona didn't say anything back. Maka felt that he didn't need to. Just the look he gave her said it all.

This was not something she expected. Honestly. It was one thing to learn about her being his mother, but this…

The idea didn't sit well with her. Like leaving a bad taste in her mouth. She didn't have a good relationship with her own parents, not of her friends did. But this…this was wrong. Without even thinking on it, Maka spoke out. "Show me."

Crona flinches at his words. His eyes even widening at such a thing. He didn't even outright tell her 'no'. He just held his out in front of himself.

Allowing Maka a closer look to it.

There were scars on it as well. She's noticed them before, but really looking at them now was much more notable. It's an obvious thing for a swordsman to have scars on their hands, even someone like her. The knuckles, palms, and fingers were obvious targets of that stuff.

Nails though, weren't.

Crona didn't have nails on his thumb, index, and pinkie finger. The skin was scratched and looked carved inward in some spots. She glances up to his other hand, looked to have the same injuries on them. Some of the scars looking much older than others. How many times have she visit him and never even noticed that?

What about the rest of his body?

Maka leans close, and softly whispers into his ear. "Queen says…show me, what she did to you?" Crona becomes frozen at her words. Barely even reacting as she places something in his hand and leaves his lap.

His eyes were still on her though, even as she walks to his bed and sits on the edge of it. She didn't say anything or make some movement for him to hurry up. Instead she just decides to watch as what he was gonna do.

Crona looks to his free hand and sees the key she placed there. The key that was meant for his shackles on his wrist. Slowly, and fearfully, Crona makes his way to his feet. Putting himself at level with the chain against the wall. He frees his left hand, and even takes off the shackle that was still attached to his right.

Maka waited for what he was gonna do next. Biting her lip as she sees him look to her, and then looking to the corner of the room. The same spot he always moved too whenever he was free. Silently, he makes his choice by walking towards her.

A weird feeling started to show up in Maka's chest. It was like a tightening she couldn't describe. It had gotten worst as she begins to see Crona undoing the two last buttons on his left cuff and pull it up to his forearm.

It was scarred, like his hands, only worst. The skin looked…wrong. Warped in a way, as if it were cut off and glued back into place. It didn't match up at all, parts of his forearm just seemed like it was a jigsaw pieces just smashed together. From different puzzles.

On the palest parts of his arm, she can make out things she really shouldn't be able to see.

Veins, muscle tissue, and bits of things that she couldn't make out.

"Lady Medusa told me it was going to increase muscle density. Make it so that even if someone got through the skin, the muscle and blood would make it impossible to penetrate." He pulls up the sleeve on his other arm and shows that the two had the same type of scaring. Though they didn't match.

Then he undoes the buttons on his collar to show her his neck. Three lines go across it, with the same wrapped skin looking mess there. She thinks back to the fight she and the others had with him. How loudly he was able to scream during his resonance with Ragnarok. "My throat was ripped open, the vocal cords removed and replaced with strong ones that she made from a mix of alchemy and crude experimenting."

Maka listens as he speaks, finding herself hanging on every word he said. "Why would she do this to you? Did she ever tell you?" She asks. The question just popping into her head from sheer curiosity. Medusa was a witch, and a spy, sure…but hurting her son.

She met the woman, even talked with her a couple of times. Almost admired how flirtatious she was, and how she was smarter than most gave her credit for. She had to know why. What kind of reason could she have?

Crona looks off to the side as he answers her. "…because I wasn't good enough. Every time I failed a task, she would change something in my body. Take something away or replace it all together. Most of my organs aren't even my own anymore, they're someone else's. This only happened sometimes." Maka recoils from such news, placing her arms behind herself in a reclined position.

A small little puff of breath escapes her throat as she tries to let that bit of info sink in. "And the other times..." She asks, hesitantly, looking back to Crona as she sees him start to cover his arms and neck.

"They were because…they were because I disobeyed her. When I tried to…to…fight back, or just refuse to hurt someone." He always sounded sad when she visited him, even during the first two times she met and fought him. So why did his tone hurt to listen to now? "Pain…is meant to make you do things, you thought you never do. As far back as I could remember, ever since I was able to walk, I had Ragnarok in my hand and she wanted me to kill."

Maka leans her head back, looking to the ceiling as she lets out a deep sigh. She's made mistakes before, tons of them. Some worse than others. And this was really proving to be the biggest one. Saying that she felt like trash was an understatement.

She didn't have any clue that he was dealing with all this. And what did she do? Make it worst. Visit him, just to mess with him. Just to make his already bad life even worst. Ironically, she can now see why Stein was trying to keep her away. When he came to check up on the boy, he must have seen what she is seeing.

"Crona, I'm so s-" She tries to apologize, for a lot of things. For the insults, for the bullying, for just being a bitch during the time when he needed someone the most. She didn't get a chance to though as Crona continues to speak.

"I didn't give in though. I denied her even then." Maka looks back at him, seeing that he kept looking away from her. This time his eyes were on the floor, with the bangs of his uneven hair covering his eyes. "Started simple, where she wanted me to kill small animals. I didn't last with those…but then one day, she asked me to kill a person. A man. He was tied up, no doubt confused, no food or water in him for who knows how long. Medusa wanted me to kill him. I told her no."

He lightly shrugs his shoulders. His tone turning dark, in an almost satiric way.

"Before…she used to just throw me in a dark, dark room. No lights, no windows, and only a door that was lock from the outside. Would keep me in there for days, till I was compliant. I still refused to kill a person."

He takes a step forward, and Maka could feel her heart starting to quicken, and her throat becoming tighten the more he spoke.

"She would try to push me, keep me on the brink. She gave me just the smallest amount of food, and water. Just enough for me to live. She kept track of it all. Told me, that I somehow managed to keep it up for over six and a half weeks. Told me she was forced to take more desperate measures and that I brought this on myself."

He starts to chuckle. His shoulders even shaking with it. She never heard him laugh before. It was at a time like this, she forgot a very important part about Crona, and what her friends tried to warn her about.

He could still kill her. Very easily too.

"…she put me on a lab table and…tried to break me. Hehe" He takes another step, his chuckling starting to grow huskier. "No…heh…even then, I still refused. Hehehehe…I was on that table with her looking down at me. She asked if I would kindly do as I'm told. Heh…I spat at her face." He picks his head up, letting Maka see his face. And the tears that was in his eyes. "She didn't like that, not at all."

Maka nervously shallows a bit of her saliva and starts to ask him a question that was starting to bug her. "Why didn't you just do what you were told?" Crona takes another step toward her, with Maka easily seeing the distance between them closing. Yet she couldn't pay much mind to it as she just kept looking right at Crona's face as he continues to speak.

"I c-couldn't allow myself to take someone's life like that. No matter how much she hurts me. No matter how much she burned me. No matter how much she cuts, and rips, and drowns, and buries me…I promised to not take a life. I didn't want to hurt anyone. They didn't do anything to hurt me, they…" He stops moving forward, just as he was right in front of her. His legs, just an inch away from touching her knees.

Maka wondered what was gonna happen next. His mismatched eyes were looking down at her, and for once Maka wondered if this is how she's been making him feel. This tightness in her chest, the dryness in her throat, the inability to look away.

The small disgusting part of her, thought maybe he was gonna hurt her. She was ready for what he was gonna do. In all honestly, she felt that she earned it with how she's been treating him.

"It's one thing to hurt me…then she started to hurt Ragnarok." If there was a such a way to somehow make her feel worst, Crona kept finding it.

He collapses right in front of her, falling to his knees…and he started to cry. Tears forming from his eyes, sobbing escaping his lips. Even snot ran down his nose. His head fell right onto her lap, his arms suddenly wrapping around her waist as he is opening sobbing into her skirt.

Suddenly, some things were starting to click.

Why he was always giving Ragnarok most of his food, why he was always moving up to defend him when Maka came over. Why he was even putting up with her just to get him a treat.

"I begged her not to. I…I really tied to reach her. To convince her. I told her I do it, but she hurt him anyway an-and-" "Crona…it's okay."

She tries to assure him. Placing a hand on his head and running it through his pink hair. He kept crying.

---

It took a while, long enough for Maka's back to ache a bit from the position she was in, and for the sun to notably set as she can see the orange sunset peering through the window before Crona stopped crying. During the whole ordeal, he would just start apologizing for random things.

He even had the nerve to say sorry to her for what he done. For following what Medusa said, and nearly killing her the first two times they fought. She just let him go on.

When he stopped crying, they just stayed in silence together. Maka, running her hands through his hair, and him slightly adjusting his hold on her. For the first time in a long while, Maka was just contempt.

Contempt with something else that wasn't her hurting herself. She was just fine to sit here with him for the whole day. Just waiting for Sid or someone to walk in on them and tell her to leave. Wouldn't be the first time such a thing happened.

"Hey…can I ask, what exactly was Medusa's plan? I mean, I get she wanted to wake up the Kishin or whatever, but…what was her plan?" Maka asked. She wasn't even thinking; she just suddenly spoke up the question. Almost as if just wanting to put a little more life back into…whatever was happening right now. "I mean, Death didn't just beat him, he ripped off his arms and legs, and cut out practically all his senses before trapping him in a bag made of his own flesh. What, did Medusa have a bunch of replacement parts for him?"

Crona didn't answer at first. Just continuing to hold on to her for a while. She can feel him take a deep breath before answering. "I was them." That made Maka stop her petting of his hair. "The plan was to use my arms, legs, eyes, tongue, ears-"

"Stop, just stop." Maka spat out, as she tightly closes her eyes at the thought. Trying to get rid of the mental image in her mind of Crona missing those parts. As if she didn't have more than enough reasons to hate the witch. "That's horrible."

"She promised that if I didn't fight back, Ragnarok wouldn't be touched." Maka gives out a scoff at that, as she goes back to petting his hair. Even going a bit further to the back of his neck, and lightly tracing a scar there. "No offence…actual, all the offence. Medusa seemed the type to go back on her word a lot."

As she spoke, she can feel Crona take in a sharp breath with her touching a scar, but also feels him give out a shudder and a small hum as she continues to run her finger along it.

"It was better than nothing." He tells her, slightly tightening his hold on her. Nuzzling his head more along her skirt. "I still have the marks on my body, the points where she will cut them off."

Right, showers weren't exactly a thing for him. Sure, they would give him a hose, but that was about as clean as any of the prisoners here were gonna get. Yet surprisingly he didn't smell that bad. Granted, it's not like he was ever activate. And she practically never saw him sweat before.

She wanted to blame it on her running her mouth again, but really, she just wanted to know. "Can I see them?" She feels him take another sharp breath and even start to nervously shake. "I…I would need to take my robe off. I'm not…wearing anything else."

Maka stops her petting again. Wondering just how Crona's body would look, what certain parts of him would look like. She seen his arms, fingers, neck…but she wanted to see more. She wanted to see the things done to this boy. This same boy that she saw as a pathetic thing before. Now she wants to see just what damage was really done to him.

"L-last I checked; we were still playing right?" She says, as she places her hands-on edge of the bed. Looking down at the broken shy boy still holding her waist. "I want you to show me, what she did to you."

"I did."

Now that was a shock, he sounded mad when he said that.

"All of you." Maka keeps pushing, this time placing one of her hands onto his shoulder. Crona tightens his hold on her even more. "I-I…I can't." He mutters out, his shaking starting to her worst.

"Queen-…" Maka begins but stops herself. Knowing now that was a very cruel game to even begin with. "Please…I want to see where she hurt you." She tells him, as she gently begins to push him away from her. Letting her take another look at him.

"No, I-I'm not good to look at." He tries to say, his eyes seeming to darken from how much he cried earlier. His lips starting to quiver, and he just look so frail. He was weak, pathetic, and broken. A sad swordsman, that his own mother just seems to want to make into a monster.

"Crona…" Maka hesitates for a moment. This wasn't her. This, caring almost nurturing part of her. That wanting to keep holding this boy. That wanted to heal him and help him. She is the one to laugh at such a thing. To poke fun at how much he was crying, and how weak he was. She would make a dirty joke while he is on his knees in front of her, or just ask him to start biting her…But she can't. "Please." She asks again, looking right into Crona's eyes.

The boy looks back with the same soft pleading look in his eyes as always. The kind the beg to not be hurt or forced to into anything, that just wanted to be left alone. And yet, he let go of her and stood himself to his feet.

Maka wanted to be able to say how excited she was to see Crona naked. To see him disrobe and view his body in all its glory. She wanted to tell him that there was nothing wrong with him. To assure him that he was fine. That he was normal.

The moment the robe fully dropped to the floor, was the moment any idea of 'coddling him' was gone.

She couldn't even get a word out. Just a quiet little gasp, as she covered her mouth with both her hands. There was not a single stranger to gruesome scenes in the DWMA. In this line of work, anyone would see a lot of terrible things. Maka herself had seen the scenes Kishin leave their victims in, during some missions she went out on.

Here…

What was in front of her, made her want to question what kind of person could do this to human being.

Images came to her head, imagining what Medusa had done to him. She imagines a smaller, more innocent looking Crona. The same pleading looks in his eyes, the same little twitchy nose, wearing the same robe.

Ghastly…horrid…abominable…revolting.

His torso looked so much worse than his arms. Clear evidence that is where most of the 'changes' happened to him. Skin was not meant to be moved in such a way. She could see the outline of his ribs. Areas where it looked as if things were straight up pulled out of him.

His legs were just as bad shape. From his thighs, all the way down to his ankles, the same kind of scaring was there. Although, it looked to have more of a pattern to it. Like things had crawled inside him, and it wasn't Ragnarok.

His crotch was…the hardest thing to look at.

There were rumors about witches. How much they hated men. Some going so far that if they were born boys, they would…do things to them. Make them wish they were never born this way. Would be better just to cut it off.

"Ragnarok, tried to fix me as best he can. We can't heal from magic though. Mother made us so." Crona says with his voice becoming softer than ever. He reaches down for his robe, only to pause as a small, almost inaudible sound called out to him.

Maka, almost didn't even realize it came from her for a moment.

He looks back up and sees how she had taken one hand off her mouth. She was cautiously holding it out to him. Her other hand still firmly on her mouth. The scars on her hands, looked like nothing compared to what was on Crona's body.

Another almost inaudible noise comes again. It was her, trying to speak. Her throat felt tight. Almost like she was being strangled. Suddenly, all those days she visited him came to mind. All those hours she spent tormenting him. Making fun of him, insulting him. The guilt falls on her like a ton of bricks. "I'm…I'm so sorry." She chocks out.

Blinking her eyes were what made her realize she was crying.

He was making her cry again, for the second time since they met. And Maka couldn't care less.

Crona doesn't say anything at first. He just looks to the down at himself as he takes a remorseful breath. Picking up his robe, he holds it against his chest. As if, trying to have some decency. "I-It's okay if you don't want to visit me anymore."

Maka could almost feel a part of herself snapped at those words. Even after all she's done to him. All that she's put him through. The fact he thought she was disgusted with him send her mind railing. Almost, like it just shut itself down.

Crona didn't get much of a chance to react, before he was grabbed by his arm and pulled towards her. His naked body landing on the bed, with her quickly pinning him down. He tries to speak out, but Maka just shoves her hand over his mouth. She was done with hearing his pathetic voice. Done with looking at his sadden eyes, done with just…him being like this.

It wasn't his fault for being what he was. For looking the way, he did. For even attacking her, or her friends. She wanted to show him that she was disgusted by him, that she wasn't angry. That she would happily give him what he deserves.

Maka places saddles herself on top of his lap, and shameless begins to kiss his along his neck and bottom of his jaw. She could hear Crona give out a muffle cry, feel his mouth trying to form words under her hand.

He places his hands onto her shoulders and tries to push her off. Nowhere near using his full strength. Obviously because he didn't want to hurt her. She wouldn't have that. Taking her hand off his mouth, she grabs both his wrist and pins them over his head.

"M-Maka please stop-" He tries to say, before she forces her lips onto his. He wasn't frozen stiff anymore. This time when she kissed him, Maka could feel his tongue, his lips, moving against hers. This was a whole new world of excitement, and she just couldn't let up.

He turns his head from her and starts to cough for a breath. Maka wouldn't blame her, she was having trouble catching her breath too. "Stop it! I-I don't-" He tries to speak, but Maka places both of Crona's wrist under one hand, using the free one to cover his mouth again.

She turns her attention back to his body, this time running her tongue on his chest. Tracing every curve of his warped skin that she could reach. Crona began to swarm, and muffle louder underneath her hand, sparking a new kind of excitement. She starts to grind herself against him.

Thrusting herself against him, causing Crona's muffles to grow as loud as possible.

Taking her hand off his mouth, Maka moves it down to her skirt, intent to remove the one piece of clothing keeping him from her touch, only to suddenly feel a heavy impact hitting her gut, effectively shoving her from the bed.

"Keepeth thy hands off us, thee wench!" Ragnarok shouts, seemly forming from Crona's stomach. Holding his little ball hands up like a boxer itching to fight. Maka picks herself up and tries to shout at him. "Of course, you always need to show up and ruin everything you-" But she stops as she gets a clearer look at Crona, mostly his face.

How scared he looked, as he was pushing himself against the wall, taking panicked filled breaths, his whole-body shivering. It easily hits Maka that she was misreading him. Thinking that the sounds he was making was just him enjoying her touch, getting as excited as she was.

It really begins to set in on her what she was doing as well. He just told her everything about him. The pain he is in, the scars left by his own mother, how he thinks of himself as some kind of monster. And really, what was her responds? To pin him down and force herself on the poor broken boy. The same boy, that she herself have been tormenting since the first day he was put in a cell.

For the first time in her life, Maka was finally asking herself the same question everyone else does. 'What is wrong with you?'

"I…I…" Maka tries to say something as he stands up to her feet. A horrid disgusting feeling hits her as she sees Crona, quickly grab Ragnarok. Not because he was scared for himself. But to protect him. "P-please, he didn't mean to hurt you, I'm sorry! I-I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt him!" He shouts, trying desperately to hold his partner down, said white creature straggles to get out of his grip, screaming things at Maka.

She doesn't hear them as she turns and runs out of the room. Rushing out of the cell, without even closing it behind her, rushing down the halls, not even giving Dr. Stein a glance as she runs by him, she just continues to run and run.

Wanting to forget how badly she just screwed up.

---

Several days went on by.

Maka had not ever gone back to see Crona since that visit. She didn't even want to leave her room. Which resulted in several days of missing classess, which was unheard of before with her. It took a lot of convincing from both Soul and Blair before she finally managed to leave her room and come to school.

Sitting in the class, minutes before the it even started, Maka just kept her head down on the desk, barely even uttering a word the entire time she was there, despite her friends attempting to get some responds.

Such as Tsubaki, grabbing her hand, placing it on the table, and slamming down a thick hard cover book on it. "Yeow!" Maka cries out, sending a glare at the older girl, before just shoving her away and going back to keeping her head on the table.

Like usual, many of the other students there just place it under that usual antics and paid no mind to it all. More than ever was Maka thankful for that, the last thing she needed was rumors going around of her, there was already some small talk of her missing class and Kim teasing her, she did not need to put up with much else.

Well, expect that her friends didn't get the memo, as they were talking about her. Not even realizing that even though they are whispering, she is still right next to them.

"…okay, this is serious. I mean, usually she would either shout about hurting her more, or get into a fight, but…what the hell?!" She hears Tsubaki loudly whisper, with Black trying in vain to shush her.

Kid was humming to himself, probably trying to figure her out like some puzzle. "And you're saying, that she's been acting like this since that visit to the demon swordsman?" He whispers back, his voice was quieter than Tsubaki's but still hearable for her. Soul didn't even try to lower his voice. "I don't know man; she's totally having a cow about this whole thing. I even managed to convince Blair to get out a ruler and try working her 'nun discipline' act and nothing. She won't talk about it either, so I am totally running out of options dude."

She can hear Patty talking with a serious harsh whisper. "You think he did something to her? If he did maybe, we can force him to tell us what! I'll break his legs, an- hang on." Patty stops, mid threat, as she goes to pull Liz away, who was currently poking Maka's head repeatedly trying to get a response.

She was at least thankful for that.

Their conversation was place on hold though, as Dr. Stein came in. Maka pulls her head up from the desk to see he was rolling a large operating table through the doorway. "Gooooood morning everyone! Isn't it a swell day to be alive?" He calls out, as happy as ever. Practically skipping as he sets the table and many surgical tools at the ready.

The classroom was mainly silent, with only Maka's voice being heard as she groans out. "I wish I was never born." In a very hollowed tone just filled with depression. She can almost feel the glare her friends were all giving to Soul at her tone of voice.

"…hey, at least she's talking bro." Soul just says back as he and the rest of the group move to their seats. Stein just continues to smile, as he sets up a large blanket on the table. "Well, sorry none of us are genies. But don't worry class, today is going to be a special day for everyone, we're going to do another live dissection-"

A great many students groan at such news.

"Now come on now Students, turn those groans of exasperated annoyance into gasp of excitements, cause today is the final test for my brand-new assistant, and adopted child!" He says excitedly, throwing his hands up in a 'jazz hands' fashion.

"Oh, dear god, he's a parent now?!" Liz blurs out, before Patty quickly pushes her head down, just barely ducking the scalpel that was aimed right for one of her eyes. Maka could feel her lips twitch a little at that. Almost making a smile. "Any more comments?" The room stays silent, with no one daring to say a word as they can all see Stein had three more scalpels in his hand, all ready to be tossed at their next victim.

"Cometh, witness, f'r we has't broth fourth this beast!" A voice suddenly calls from outside, a very familiar voice and accent for Maka, causing her to pick up her head and stare at the door to the left of Stein with fully widen eyes.

Crona walks into the classroom, wearing a lab coat over a black dress, which extends downwards to his knees. Ragnarok was outside of him, tapping his large sphere hands on boy's head like it was a drum roll. Under one of Crona's arms was a limp humanoid fish creature about half his size.

He looked…well. Good even.

"I'm sorry, Frank, the fish tank didn't hold." He spoke, casually as he places the creature on the surgery table. It's still wet body, seeming to just slump onto the table. "It died shortly after leaving the water."

Seeing him again, left Maka completely silent. Her brain might as well just be fried at this point as she couldn't even reel in shock or awe of seeing him acting so 'normal'. She can't even react as she sees Stein place a hand onto his shoulder.

"Ah, it's okay. Better for it to be dead during this anyway to make it easier on you." Soul was to her left, bumping his elbow to her as he was whispering. "I'm sorry, did Stein just say he adopted the dude that nearly killed me?" She can see from the corner of her eye that Kid standing up, to proclaim such a thing.

Him and Stein seeming to get into a debate about the whole thing, as Kid is trying to give him the riot act for suddenly adopting a prisoner of the DWMA, and with Stein telling him that he got permission for such a thing.

Maka doesn't even acknowledge them, as her focus is entirely on Crona as Ragnarok forms back into his body, letting him take off his lab coat, revealing that the dress he wore did not cover his arms at all, showing off his scars and warped skin. As Stein and Kid continue to talk, he goes to work by taking a scalpel.

The debate ended with Stein brushing Kid off and starting to talk with the rest of the class again. "Crona, while I understand this will be hard for you, I certainly believe in you. You will need to dissect your specimen and label all major organs, and organic systems within this Deep One. Including each different kind of vein, for where it stores its blood and poison, each kind of fangs that it had, and so on. All while doing so in front of an audience."

He speaks loudly, and showman like. With a big sense of pride behind his voice. "But do not worry, they are all here to support you, not to judge. Including with an additional round of applause, how about that everyone?" A quiet few were even willing to do so, those that did made it last no more than a few claps. "Clap or you're next one on this table!" Many of the students gave a loud applause towards, some even standing to do so.

Stein stood with his hands in his waist, and a smiling growing on his face. Turning to face his new assistant, he excitedly holds his hand out to him and calls out. "Alright Crona, let it begi-huh?"

"I'm done." Crona says back, the humanoid fish carved open with its organs all laid out next to it, all labeled with small pieces of sticky notes them. His hands were still covered in its blood. "I uh…I filleted the specimen from his tail to his chin, and labeled the entirety of its insides, ranging from its veins, to different muscles, to teeth, and I had even managed to also catalogued the stomach contents, allowing me to extrapolate its history and determined the cause of death. Brain aneurism, cause from the shock of it leaving the water at such a sudden movement, and with rapid change in temperature. It died suddenly and without the least bit of suffering."

Stein stood there, with his arms hanging at his side in shock. Only managing to give out a low 'Well, uh-' Before Crona continues to speak.

"It lived for less than three years, and never ventured furthered than two miles from the underground caves of Dunwich from where it was hatched. It died before it was old enough to reproduced, leaving nothing of substance behind to mark its passing. It's almost as if its sole purpose for being was to wind up here, in this classroom…so that I might cut it apart."

Silence fell on the class, so silent that she could hear the clanking of Stein's screw, even from her seat. His voice turning cold and distant the more he spoke, to a more normal person, showing probably even more like a dangerous monster. No hint of sympathy and no even a flinch ounce of respect for the thing he butchered. She could see it as Kid was slowly moving from his seat, one hand on Liz's shoulder, the other on Patty's breast. Tsubaki had stood on her row's table, ready to transform. Even Soul, who was by her side moved at the ready. To fight and finished the fight the three of them had underneath the city.

They all fought him before. Known how he sounds when he attacked them.

For someone not so normal, it just made her want to hold him again. To let him lay his head on her lap again for god knows how long. Let him cry and hold her, and maybe give him another kiss.

It should come to no surprise, that of all people, Crona's weapon partner was the first to speak. "Once m're, thee has proven to beest the most fucked'd up p'rson in the cubiculo." He spoke as he formed from Crona's back, knocking the teen upside his head with one of sphere hands. It was a good tension breaker. Several of the students even chuckling at it.

"…I knew adopting you was a good idea!" Stein suddenly shouts out, throwing his arms up excitedly.

The rest of the time in class was spent, with Stein teaching and Crona at his side. It turns out that the boy was smarter than a lot of people gave him credit for. His white blood even coming into the lesson as they talk about the nature of blood, and how it correlates with the soul being in a person's the heart. It was after class that is when things started to get a little, intense.

As most of the other students all pick themselves up and leave, Maka just stayed in her seat, looking right to Crona, who was in the middle of getting praised by Stein. The older man petting the boy on the head as if he were a little child. It is a very demanding thing, and if it were on everyone else, they would just tell him to stop maybe even slap his hand away.

But the small, cutely innocent smile on Crona's face proved very much otherwise. He was even leaning forward for it.

The rest of Maka's friends, hesitantly left. Kid and his partners all giving their own looks to the boy as they passed for the door, Kid being suspense, Patty looking worried, Liz looking if she wanted to ask him if they could go shopping so time.

Tsubaki was full on held back by Black Star, as she was dragged out which was something Maka was thankful for. Last thing they all needed was a repeat of what happened with that fight with Kid. Only this one would be worst as Crona might kill her.

All who were left in the room was her, Soul, Stein and Crona. And She had no idea what to do.

"Hey, Maka, come on, we got the next class with Sid remember." Soul tries to reach her, even taping her shoulder to get a response, but Maka stayed in place. She didn't want to look away from Crona as he had a small, tiny, innocent smile on his face.

He looked so happy. Like for once in his life, he was just genuinely happy about something. For once, it was something other than pain that brought a warm feeling in her heart.

Although, that smile did disappear as he turns and looks at her. His mismatch eyes widen in shock, no doubt realizing she was in the room the whole time. Immediately Maka is hit with the reminder of what she had done to Crona, how she had made him cry, and she cause his body to shake with fear after she had...

So, she tries to run for it. Just like she did before.

She quickly shoves Soul to the side, and rushes down the stairs as fast as she could, trying to reach for the doorway to the side of the right side of the room, practically throwing herself to the door…only to be stopped as a surgical table was thrown at it, so hard it easily breaks through the doorway, almost like it were a giant axe.

That was easily enough to make Maka stop in her tracks and look at the direction the table was thrown from, seeing the small Ragnarok clapping his sphere hands together in triumphant. "Ah-ha, i con'r'd thee, soweth! Anon Crona, cast thy vengeance upon thee!" He cartoonish voice calling out with glee.

"uh…I…uh…" Maka tries to speak as she as Crona begins to walk to her, stepping over the body and organs of the fish creature he cut open, with his eyes kept right onto her. A blank look on his face, showing he wasn't angry, or sadden, or happy. He was determined to get something done. She knew right then; running was not an option.

And a small part of her wonder what he will do to her, for what she did to him.

Soul ran to her, throwing himself in front of her to try and act as a shield. "Now wait just a minute, buster, I don't know what happened last time she visited you, but if you want to get to her, you have to get throu-" He doesn't even get a chance to finish, as Crona grabs him by the collar of his jacket, and slams his forehead right into Soul's nose.

With a sickling creak, and blood flowing from the other boy's nose, Crona carelessly tosses Soul to the side as he continues to walk toward Maka. "Hey, at least he didn't cut you open this time. Progress." Stein said as cheery as ever as he attends to Soul's nose, despite the scythe trying to shove him off and protest.

"Stein, stop! He's gonna hurt her!" "Oh, she would love that."

As much as Maka wanted to say she was in full agreement, she remained still as Crona walked right up to her. Her eyes moved along his, knowing that underneath that lab coat and dress, hide scars from a mother that did not love her child. That wanted to turn him into a weapon. That broke him.

Yet, here he was. An assistant for the man who killed her. Even helping to teach a class on the place meant to kill his mother's kind. And she was happy for him, as odd as it would sound, she was just downright happy. Happy that he was there, out of his cell, adopted by an overall okay man. Given a new life.

For the trouble she put him through, she was more than willing to take whatever punishment he was going to give. With her lips tugging upward to a smile, Maka gets ready for this 'vengeance' Ragnarok spoke of. She expected a lot, ranging from him punching her and breaking her nose. Maybe he would have Ragnarok turn to his weapon form and stab her through her stomach. Maybe he would take a page from Stein's book and open her up. Take out her organs, just as he did to that fish creature.

Those thoughts, and much more, were all running through her head excitedly.

What she didn't expect was for Crona to come forward, and lightly press his lips against her left cheek.

His soft, caring, dry lips.

As he pulls away, Ragnarok's voice cries out. "Not with thy that from which we speak, thy fist! I hest thee did beat this mistress f'r all the grief the lady hast causeth us-" Crona moves his hand to grab at Ragnarok's throat, stopping the creature made of white blood from talking further.

"Frank, i-is it okay if I can talk with Maka alone? I-I promise to meet for the next class." He says, turning face Stein and the downed Soul. The mad doctor slightly tilts his head and gives out a low hum of thought, before quickly agreeing. "Hmmm…Oh, okay little buddy." He then begins to drag the protesting Soul out of the room, with a large smile on his face. "Have fun with your girlfriend!"

Those his last words as he closes the door behind him as he leaves. They were now alone together, just like in his cell. Only difference being that this time, it was Maka who was cornered, as the surgical table blocked her from using the doorway, and Crona himself was stopping her from running toward the one Stein and Soul left through.

"Please go back inside, I…I really need to talk to her." He whispers to his partner. The White blood creature, looking down to him and then at her. The childish voice he had becomes serious, with him giving a low growl that was just enough for the two teens to hear. "If thou lay one hand of harm onto Crona once more, I swear to kill thee!" His small body then begins to melt and reform itself to a liquid shape, and back into Crona's back. The threat, even with his silly old accent, still carried weight on it.

After all, he just showed that Crona wasn't the only one with abnormal strength. She really did not want to think about what he could do if he got these little mitts on her, well…a part of her did, but she really didn't want to think like that with him. I mean, it would be awkward with Crona having to be so nearby and-

"I missed you."

Like a rubber band again, Maka's mind snaps back into place as soon as Crona spoke. Especially on the words that he used. Before Maka could even say a confused 'what', Crona takes a step forward, getting closer to her as he continues to speak. "I…I wanted to see you again. To hear your voice."

He was talking, and Maka was hearing what he said, but her mind was just not able to fathom it all. Crona continued to speak, as he came closer, with Maka having to press herself against the one of the student's desk for space.

It was really starting to hit Maka, as he wasn't hunch over anymore, or in chains, that he was taller than her. Such a little thing can really seem a difference, seeing those different colored eyes looking at her.

"I-I'm sorry!" He says softly, as he moves to rest his forehead against hers. "I'm sorry for making you run away. I didn't know how to deal with it. With how you were acting, and why you were…touching me. I'm sorry for scaring you."

He was sorry. He was the one apologizing to her. She cannot believe it; she doesn't want to believe it. What kind of sense was he even making at this point? "Scaring me? I thought I…I thought I scared you." She nearly shouts as pulls herself away and tries to push him back by shoving her hands to his chest.

Forgetting once more how strong he was, as it felt like she was trying to shove a wall over.

"You did. For a while too." He grabs her hands and holds them over her head, easily picking her up by them. "But I want to keep seeing you." Maka couldn't help but give out a childish gasp as she finds herself being held in the air by him. She tries to kick herself free, throwing her foot to his knees for him to let go. That did nothing though.

He starting to walk while holding her, moving her away from the corner he put her in. She doesn't even try to understand what he was thinking as she starts to shout while kicking him. "Stop, just put me down! You're not making any sense!" She brings up both her feet and kicks at his chest.

Thankfully, that did seem to make him let her go. But the moment she falls to the floor, Crona was back on her. This time, pinning her to the floor with one hand on each of her wrist, and straddling on her torso. Much like how she did the same thing to him a couple days ago.

"I…I'm sorry." Crona cries out, as Maka continues to try and struggle her way out of his hold. "I know I shouldn't think of you this way; I knew it was wrong, and even sick." Her eyes widen at that, and she could feel her face heat up. She did not want him saying stuff like that, she really didn't. Not after what she put herself through. "But, the days you weren't there…were the worst. Even with Frank, and Ragnarok seeming so happy, I was…I just wanted to see you again."

Maka looks up to his face, and sees tears were starting to form in his eyes.

He…just looked to sad.

"I shouldn't be selfish. I know b-but" His voice started to creak, snot dripped from his nose, and he was starting to shake now. It was not a pretty sight, for anyone to see. Especially for someone in her position with tears literally falling on her face. "I…I liked when you visited me. I know it's…stupid, and I'm disgusting for it. But I wanted…I needed to see you again b-because…" She should see him just as she always saw him before.

Weaken, pathetic, a living cry baby of a joke that nearly killed her and her friends. And yet, hearing his words, watching him sob, doing nothing as he takes his hands off hers to wipe at his face. Knowing what he had been through.

Everyone always thought they figure Maka out. That she was just a crazy, machoistic, perverted girl. That all she ever cared about was pain, books, turning her partner to a death scythe. That nothing else mattered to her.

The only time she showed anyone that she could cry, was the day she was nearly killed by the same boy that was on her lap; and it was just a fluke. That she was just for once scared for her own life. Not that she cared about her partner. That's what her friends thought, what her teachers thought, what her parents thought, even said partner thought.

No one really knew that she read romance novels. That she wanted to be a better parent then her own. That she's jealous of how her female friends were prettier than her. That…any emotional wall she put up, any at all defense she made for herself would crumble when a shy, nervous, physically and mentally broken boy, would say eight words, that completely break her heart.

"I like to pretend you were my friend."

His soft voice saying those words, that he would think of such a thing about her. That he wanted to see her again. It just makes Maka move her hands, grabbing Crona by his collar, and pulling him down towards her.

She hears him give out a short yelp as his body slams against hers. But other than that, he doesn't even react before she rolls him over, she takes his spot. Now she was on top of him, sitting on his lap, just like she did before.

He makes no move to stop her, as she grabs him by the collar of his dress and pulling his head up as she moves her own down. She presses her forehead against his and feels their lips lightly brush against one another.

She makes no movement to fully connect them though. Instead she pulls back, and holds a fist up, ready to send it crashing into his face. Again, Crona makes no move to stop her. Just brace himself as he tightly closes his eyes, expecting the hit. It wouldn't surprise her if he wasn't even hardening his blood, so that she wouldn't hurt herself when she hits him.

He was just…just giving himself to her.

Readying himself for her, she like she just did for him when her cornered her earlier. She couldn't take it. She cannot take him. She can't deal with him anymore. He won. He finally broke her.

She cried.

Maka began to cry again. The third time he done so.

She cried and cried. Her hands dropping from his shoulder and pressing her face against his chest. She cried more, and Crona didn't move her one bit. Only movement he made was hesitantly having his arms wrap around her.

He couldn't keep his promise to his adopted Father. He and Maka just stayed in that room together for the rest of the day. Crona, acting as a guard to anyone that tried to enter the room, who were met with a near storm of white needles made of his blood. Thankfully they got the message and place a do not disturb sign on the door.

---

They were at her home, in her apartment, in her room. Crona sitting on her bed and reading one of her books on torture. To her, it must all feel like a dream.

Stein was not happy with what happened. Was disappointed in his adopted son and told him for causing so much trouble that he was going to be on detention duty for five weeks. Maka was fairing any better, as she was now going to detention for the same amount of time. Just the two of them, seeing one another after school, with no one to disturb him.

Maka had to admit, there was a reason Stein was her favorite teacher. Though it didn't help that her friends all found out about it. Even waited for her and Crona to come out of school so they can all confront them about it. It was funny to see Soul with the bandage on his nose.

Crona apologized a lot to them, not only about getting her in trouble, but also for everything he had done. Though he didn't say sorry about Soul's nose, telling him that he should have learn from last time he jumped in the way of him.

They just served their first day of duty and came to Maka's apartment. It was fun seeing him met Blair, even more fun when she met Ragnarok. The cat nun used holy water on him, Crona was not happy one bit about that. If she thought he was cute normally, he was downright sexy when mad.

The poor cat ran off after seeing him, leaving them thankfully alone again, seeing as Soul was also out.

"You're staring again." Crona spoke up, peaking up from the book as he laid on her bed, wearing his white robe again, minus the shoes. She found it cute how he was curling himself up, by bending his legs inward and trying to hide his face behind the book.

"Sorry. I'm just…I'm just happy that we are like this now." Maka says as she stands up from her seat, a smile showing on her face. "…together, like this I mean. Although, I think I still owned you something." With a playful wink she adds on. "Well…other than the chocolate for your partner."

Crona glances from the top the book for the moment, his face growing a bit paler. "…he really likes sweets." He mumbles out, as he starts to shift his feet a little. Probably feeling Ragnarok stir inside him. Maka really hopped he didn't come out, she had to bride him with a whole bag of Soul's favorite chips to make sure he stayed inside. She wanted more alone time with Crona first.

"I want to give you something different." She remembers back to the room again, back to what she told Crona to do. It was unfair of her, and not to mention cruel. She's said sorry, but honestly it still doesn't seem fair for her, they still weren't even for that. So, she stands up from her chair, taking off her tie. "But first…I want to know…why? Why did you see me as your friend again?"

She knew the answer, she just wanted to hear it again. Crona looks up from the book, his colored eyes widening as he sees her taking off her sweater vest and button up shirt, letting them fall to the floor as she begins to walk to the bed.

"Uh…because…you cared about me. You visited me, you talked to me, you made sure I ate my food, y-you…" He pauses for a moment as Maka takes off her bra, casually dropping it on the floor as she continues to walk towards him, stopping just before the bed. "You even…-p-played games with me." That's how he saw those things then. Little games. Of course, that is how he saw those. Any other would call it torture, for him, they were a walk in the park.

She unzips her skirt and pulls both it and her panties down to the floor, lightly kicking them off her feet as she climbs into bed, crawling over onto him, and sitting on his lap. He keeps trying to hide his face behind the book, but Maka could feel how much he was shaking.

He was nervous, scared even. Just like before.

Not because of how she looked, or that she was on top of him. That he didn't know what she wanted. She didn't want to hurt him, she wanted him to be close to her, closer than she's ever been with anyone else. She reaches forward, her hand lightly moving passed the book and brushing Crona's ear.

She could feel him jump a bit from her touch. Holding back a chuckle from that, as she keeps moving her hand forward. Under the pillow that Crona was resting his head on. It's there she pulls out a pocketknife from underneath it.

She opens it with a flick of her wrist and holds the blade between her thumb and forefinger, leaving the handle out towards Crona, just as he began to peak over the book again.

"Crona, I want you to hurt me." Maka whispered, as soft as she could to him. She remembers the few times she was in positions like this. Her first time, during that short time she dated Soul. The time she asked Tsubaki to do it. Even during her more desperate days, when she walked around the city at night, hoping to be jumped by someone.

She wanted to be hurt. To feel pain given by someone else. Soul couldn't even bring himself to do more than lightly slap her, Tsubaki would claim it just didn't feel right hurting her on purpose, and the apparently, she was too 'freaky' for a bunch of drunks to have their way with her.

But Crona, hesitantly and so full of nerves he was literally shaking, was able to put down the book…and take the knife from her hands. "A-are you sure about this?" He asks, not even looking at her naked body, just to the knife that was now in his hands.

He knew she liked pain.

So, she didn't need to say much else.

All Maka did was take his hands and bringing them towards her stomach. And all his shaking stopped.

She shouldn't be shocked that she didn't feel it at first. He was a swordsman, and Stein's new assistant. But Maka was still surprised as ever, to feel the knife slowly, yet gently crave through her skin. There was no tearing, no moving the knife irately, just a smooth, clean cut. Not too deep, but enough to break the skin.

Maka greedily sucks in a breath of air. This was so much better than her doing it herself. Even more so than when she fights someone, and they hurt her. Obviously, it was because it wasn't just anyone cutting her. It was Crona. Her Crona. And she wanted everyone to know that.

"~Don't stop~" She moans out, as she feels Crona, tracing the knife along her stomach again, this time moving upward along her stomach. Wordlessly, the white blood boy, nods his head, and softly pushes Maka onto her back and he moves the knife more downward.

---

"Let me get this straight." Patty began, holding her cowgirl hat in frustration as she tries to let it all sink in, what her friend just told her. With them all going out for a 'girls' night out' kinda thing. During so, Maka was wearing shorts, that ride up. Letting her show bandaging that she had.

Which Maka was more than happy to let them see what it was. "You let him carve his name on your leg? What is wrong with you?! Was a tattoo too expensive and easy?"

Times like this Maka wished she had a mirror. Just to see the how much she was smiling at such a thing. Of course, she didn't let him carve his name on her, she made him do so. Practically begged for it. She was his, and he was hers after all. And she loved every second of it. "You're just mad because now you got to deal with Liz asking you to get a tattoo." Maka says back, giving a small wink a such a thing as she leans forward, letting her loose collar become more open and show that her neck was covered in bite marks. "Besides, I wanted him to do it with his own hands. And he is really good with them, and with his mouth too."

Tsubaki was the next one to speak up. "You know, most girls I know have hickeys from their boyfriends…not looking like they were attacked by starving vampires." Maka waves her off, mumbling 'tomato tomahto' under her breath. Liz was the one to come to her side. "I think it's sweet…in a weird, freaky kind of way."

"Thank you, Liz." Maka says back, before looking to the scar on her leg. Seeing how took up the side of her thigh, with Crona's name. It was an ugly scab-puss filled mess that anyone else would be disgusted with. It was from her broken white knight though. And she loved him even more for it.