Stein woke up the next morning and found that it was slightly difficult for him to breathe. When his eyes adjusted to the light, he discovered the culprit.
At some time during the night, Maka had crawled on top of him. She was curled up, her head resting at the base of his neck, and one of her arms was around his shoulder.
He grabbed his glasses off the bedside table and turned his head. Marie was still asleep. From what Stein knew, she was usually an early riser. Then again, a lot had gone on yesterday. Looking after a three-year-old was tiring; especially one with parents such as Maka's.
"Maka…?" Stein whispered, to no avail. He gently shook the young girl's shoulder, which caused her green eyes to open wearily.
"U-Uncle Stein?" she yawned, rubbing her eyes.
"It's okay, you can go back to sleep. Just not on me." Stein said, cradling the little girl and ferrying her back to the middle of the mattress.
"It's okay. I'm not sleepy anymore." Maka smiled. Stein sat up, stretching his arms and standing from the mattress. Maka turned to Marie, who was still asleep.
"Why isn't Aunty Marie awake? She should be awake!" Maka asked, looking back at Stein. Stein picked Maka up, looking at Marie and then his goddaughter.
"Let her sleep." Stein replied, causing Maka to frown.
"But-"
"She'll be up soon, I'm sure." Stein said, putting Maka down and being taken aback when she grabbed his hand.
"I show you how to make breakfast." Maka said, adamantly. Stein raised an eyebrow. It was rather emasculating for a twenty-year-old man to be bossed around by a three-year-old girl. But, he decided to go with it, for fear of Maka making a scene and waking Marie if he didn't.
"What do you want for breakfast, Maka?" Stein asked, picking the girl up and sitting her on the counter. Maka looked up in thought as Stein flicked on the kettle.
"Ah… um… I don't know." Maka smiled widely. Stein sighed and his head fell into his hands.
"Well, what do you usually have?" Stein asked. Maka looked at Stein in thought.
"I'm not sure… But, wait! You know that thing where you get the bread and you put it in the magical machine that turns it into bread but hot and crunchy?"
"You mean… a toaster? That turns bread into toast?" Stein asked. Maka smiled widely.
"Yes! That one!" Maka said.
"So…" Stein began.
"I don't want that." Maka said. Stein rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Well, instead of telling me what you don't want, why don't you tell me what you do want?" Stein asked.
"Uh… I have the little yoghurts in the fridge that only Mama and Papa can reach. I reached them once and I ate them all, and I was very sick. So Mama and Papa only lets me have one at a time." Maka explained. Stein smirked slightly; she reminded him a lot of Kami, who also felt the need to not just answer a question, but answer it with an anecdote to boot.
"Sounds good. Stay there." Stein said, Maka nodding as she held onto the edge of the counter. Stein walked over to the fridge and opened it, searching for Maka's yoghurt. He found it, and pulled one off, opening it.
"Do you have to eat at the table?" Stein asked, handing Maka the yoghurt and her special spoon, as had been pointed out to him the night before, after dinner.
"Well, Mama says I do, but Papa lets me eat out here. You're more like Papa-"
"Please don't say that." Stein murmured.
"-so I s'pose you could let me sit out here." Maka said. Stein sighed.
"It's easier to keep an eye on you out here." Stein said, sitting Maka further back on the counter so she didn't fall off. Maka happily ate her yoghurt, watching as Stein pulled two coffee cups out of the cupboard.
"Are you making coffee for Aunty Marie?" Maka asked.
"Yes." Stein replied.
"Because you're in love with her?" Maka asked, expectantly. Stein sighed and shook his head.
"I'm not in love with her." Stein remarked, not really wanting to have a conversation about his love life, or lack thereof, with a three-year-old.
"But you sleeped together!" Maka exclaimed. Stein turned to Maka, eyes wide, a stern look on his face nevertheless.
"Do not say that to your father." Stein warned. Maka sighed and continued eating her yoghurt. Marie shuffled out of the bedroom, pulling a lemon-yellow dressing gown around her waist and scratching her head.
"Good morning, you two." Marie yawned, rubbing her eyes.
"Hi, Aunty Marie!" Maka beamed. It was amazing how fast toddlers could wake up. Stein turned to Marie, a sleepy smile appearing on her face when she saw the two coffee cups.
"Still milk, two sugars?" Stein asked. Marie nodded.
"Still black, no sugar?" Marie asked, walking over to Maka.
"Indeed." Stein replied, watching as Marie cleaned up the yoghurt which Maka had managed to spread halfway across her face.
"Did you get any in your mouth?" Marie asked, a slight baby-talk tone to her voice.
"I did, Aunty Marie!" she smiled, like it was an achievement. Marie smiled and grabbed a tissue from the tissue box next to the phone, wiping the yoghurt from Maka's face. Maka smiled.
"Thank you." she said, Marie giving her back the half-full yoghurt container and her spoon.
"Try to get it all in your mouth, this time." Marie said. Maka nodded. Stein walked over to Marie, handing her to coffee cup.
"Thanks, Stein." Marie replied, taking the caffeine graciously, as any young adult who had a full day of looking after a toddler ahead of them would. Marie took a seat at the small table in the kitchen, Stein stayed standing up next to Maka, leaning on the counter.
After a rather in-depth discussion about the television of choice for a three year old, the phone rang.
"I've got it." Stein said, placing his coffee down next to Marie, picking up the phone.
"This is the Albarn residence." he answered.
"Stein, my man! How is everyone?" Spirit trilled on the other end of the line. Stein sighed and scratched his head.
"We're all fine. What are you so upbeat about?" Stein asked.
"Stein, I've already gotten laid more in the past 24 hours than I did during the first six months after Maka was born."
"That's… Thanks for sharing, Spirit." Stein sighed, shaking his head. He noticed his goddaughter perk up at that name; she knew that Spirit was her papa's name. She motioned for the phone by opening and closing her fists in Stein's direction.
"I think there's someone here who'd like to speak to you." Stein smirked, Maka nodding quickly in response. He held the phone to his shoulder with his head and picked up Maka, handing her the receiver with one hand and keeping her steady with the other.
"Papa?" Maka asked, excitedly.
"Maka-chan! My baby, how are you?"
"I good, Papa. Does you and Mama be having fun on holiday?" Maka asked. That question caused Marie and Stein to look at each other, barely biting back laughter.
"We are having a lot of fun, Maka." Spirit said, Maka not understanding the innuendo, luckily. Maka smiled widely and kept taking, twirling the phone cord around her tiny fingers.
"Aunty Marie and Uncle Stein be taking very good care of me, Papa." Maka announced.
"That's good, honey. I trust they would."
"Where is Mama?" Maka asked.
"Mama's still asleep, honey. How about we call you tonight?"
"Okay, Papa!" Maka beamed.
"Alright, my darling. Hand the phone back to Uncle Stein, now."
"Alright, Papa. Bye-bye!" Maka exclaimed, handing the phone back to Stein. Stein took it, all while trying to keep hold of Maka. Marie stood up and took the toddler from Stein, earning herself a rare grateful glance.
"Here, how about we go and get you dressed?" Marie asked, putting Maka down on the ground. Maka nodded wildly and took Marie's hand, running into her bedroom. Stein sighed and listened to Spirit speak again.
"She's been alright?"
"Of course. She's been fine." Stein replied.
"Alright. Well, I'd better get back to Kami."
"I'm not going to ask why." Stein knew better.
"To have sex." Spirit told him anyway.
"I sort of figured that one out." Stein sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Alright. I gotta go. Say hi for Marie for me, yeah?"
"Will do." Stein responded.
"You made a move on her, yet?"
"Shut up." Stein retorted.
"Alright, alright."
"Yeah." Stein shook his head.
"Condoms are in the second drawer, left-hand side table." Spirit chuckled. Stein growled at the receiver.
"Goodbye, Spirit." Stein said, hanging up the phone. He rolled his eyes and leant on the counter. Although Spirit was an idiot, he may have had a point. Stein and Marie had come awfully close to getting together at the end of their senior year at Shibusen. But then, Kami got pregnant, study stepped up for graduation, and it was all too complicated.
Stein shook his head. He decided not to try and do anything. He'd go where the week took him. Whether or not it was to that second drawer, he didn't know.
"Maka! Oh, goodness me!" Marie stood up, her black t-shirt now sopping wet and sticking to her.
"Oh, no, I sorry, Aunty Marie!" Maka said, her eyes wide with regret, thought the solemnity of her apology was let down by the fact that she was currently sitting in a bath with a bubble beard on.
"No, no, honey, it's okay." Marie said, pulling the t-shirt off and hanging it over the towel rack. Luckily, she was wearing white bike shorts which had been saved from the soaking attack. She couldn't help notice Maka looking at a particular part of her anatomy in… was it shock? She was used to people looking at her there, she was well endowed, but it wasn't usually by three-year-olds.
"What's wrong, Maka?" Marie asked, kneeling down next to the bath.
"Are you a big girl, Aunty Marie?" Maka asked. Marie shrugged.
"I suppose I am, Maka. Why?" she replied.
"Because you wear a… a bra." Maka said, like it was some holy, reverent thing. Marie sighed with relief when she realised she was looking at the white bra she was wearing, not her… never mind.
"Well, yes. You will, one day, too." Marie said.
"No way!" Maka exclaimed.
"Well, you might have to wait a little longer than other girls. Your mother had to." Marie said. Kami was always quite flat-chested.
"Okay, Aunty Marie!" Maka said, smiling. Marie couldn't quite believe that she'd just had a conversation about bras with a three-year-old.
"Alright, are you ready to get out?" Marie asked.
"Yes." Maka said, reaching her arms out of the bath and into the beckoning towel-covered arms of Marie. She wrapped the panda-pattern towel around the little girl, pulling up the hood over her sandy blonde hair.
"Aunty Marie, I a panda!" Maka babbled happily. Marie giggled and held Maka against her hip, pulling her toothbrush out of the cupboard.
"Can you put your own toothpaste on?" Marie asked. Maka nodded and, picking up the tube, squeezed a small amount of her junior pink toothpaste on the head of the brush.
"Okay, now, give me a big smile." Marie said. Maka grinned, baring all of her teeth for Marie to brush. After brushing her teeth and holding her over the sink to spit, Marie put Maka down on the ground.
"Get your pyjama on, then when you're done; get Uncle Stein to read you Princess Sparkles." Marie said. Maka nodded and, still clad in her panda towel, ran off to her room. Marie leant over the bath to pull out the plug, but she was standing on the soaked bathmat, so when her body twisted but the mat stayed put…
"Aah!"
Marie's scream was muffled when she tumbled into the bath, her legs flying up in the air as she pulled her head to the surface.
"Marie? What ha-" Stein suddenly found himself unable to talk when he saw the sight before him.
Marie, incidentally wearing the most see-through colour of them all, white, had fallen in the bath. She was only wearing shorts and a bra, both of which were soaked, not to mention becoming rapidly transparent. To add to the scene, Marie's legs were up in the air.
"Help?" she squeaked. Stein wasn't sure he could move. Eventually, his brain jump-started again, and he managed to move forward, leaning down and feeling two long, slender, damp arms wrap around his neck. He helped Marie to her feet, allowing her to step out of the bath. He averted his eyes as he handed Marie a towel.
"Thanks. I'm such an idiot." Marie laughed to herself. Stein still couldn't respond coherently.
"Mmhm. I-I'll put Maka to bed." Stein mumbled, walking out of the room and staring at the floor the whole time. He shut the door around, resting against the wall outside the bathroom.
No matter what he tried, he couldn't get the vision of the soaking wet, half-naked Marie out of his head. He had to think about something else. He had to get his mind off of it before his body followed suit in showing how he felt about it. And not just in the form of a bloody nose, either. In a completely and utterly more embarrassing way.
Tennis. Shoelaces. Studying. No. It didn't work.
There was only one sure-fire way to bore Stein so far out of his brains that he wouldn't be focused enough to remember what happened behind that bathroom door. He walked down the hallway and into one of the bedrooms.
"Maka, are you ready for Princess Sparkles yet?"
A/N: … Shoelaces? Yeah, because when I want to prevent a boner, I think about shoelaces.
I'll shut up now.