Crona looks at the inside of her apartment with wide eyes "Wow." he gasps "I-Its so big."

"Yeah" As soon as Maka got inside her apartment her excitement faded and she was left with being exhausted.

"What is this?" He looks at the fish with wondering eyes not sure whether they are interesting or scary.

"Fish." she states simply "Haven't you seen them before?" She goes to the cabinet and gets the fish food.

"No" Cronas eyes are glued to the blue one that is swimming back and forth in a maniac way.

"You want to feed them?" Maka asks showing him the bottle.

His eyes instantly light up. "Y-Yes!" he reminds Maka of a kid.

She hands him the food and when he grabs it the bottle goes through his hand.

The plastic is in pieces and the food is all over the place.

"I-I'm s-sorry!" Crona tries repeatedly to pick it up the food he dropped and doesn't succeed.

Maka watches him freak out and a smile appears on her face as she goes to get the broom and dusk pan.

Crona watches her clean the mess, sadly.

"I'm s-sorry." he says again, but this time more calmly following her as she throws the mess away.

She ruffles his hair "It's fine." she yawns feeling drained.

"Are y-you tired?" he asks shifting around uncomfortably.

"A bit." a huge understatement "Are you?"

"Yea." his eyes focused on the fish tank.

Maka points to the fish he has been curious about. "This one is named Black star."

Crona and Maka both watch Black Star racing around all over the tank.

"D-Did you name them all?"

Maka looks at her fish glad that she has someone else besides the fish now. "Yes, Do you want to know all their names?"

Crona observes the fish fascinated by them "Yea."

She looks at the only company she has had for the passed five years and points to the black one "This plain black one is Tsubaski, the one red eyes and white scales is Soul, the yellow one is Patty, the brown one is Liz, the Black one with the three white stripes is Death the kid, and as you know the blue one is Black Star.

She looks back at Crona and he is looking at her hair very intensively. "Is there something wrong with my hair."

He shakes his head side to side very rapidly. "N-No, It-It-Its just v-very...long." he hunched his shoulder and back trying to disappear.

Maka looks at her hair and realizes how long it is.

It is way past her waist, the last time she cut it was when she was nine.

And the last time she wore her beloved pigtails was the day he left.

She slams her head against the wall not wanting to think about it.

Maka looks back at Crona and he is still having a mini break down.

She touches his hair and he gasps and tenses just as she expected.

She really should name this thing he does.

She could call it The Feels or The Response.

The Reaction.

That makes sense.

She continues to play with his hair, she twirls it and braids it enjoying to softness. "Its soft." she informs him.

The whole time she is doing this Crona has not taken a breath.

She finally let's go and he is able to take a deep breath.

"Want to hear a secret?" Maka whispers in his ear feeling like a regular girl sharing gossip.

Crona shutters getting goose bumps, he does not trust himself to talk now so just nods.

She gets out of his personal space and focuses her attention on the fish tank "These fish in a way are my imaginary friends. I fantasize about a world were I am not a ghost hunter and have best friends that I have known since I was a kid. Tsubaski is my bestest best friend she is beautiful and so calm. Her school partner is Black Star who is basically in love with his self and somehow she can deal with him. Soul is my school partner he may seem jerk like, but he is really sweet underneath his cool attitude. Death the Kid is someone I could be a total nerd with, he loves books as much as I do and he gets sucked into them like me. However, he has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder where he cannot stand anything being unsymmetrical, but it is a little funny. His school partners are two sisters; Liz and Patty. Those two are complete opposites of one another, Patty is like a big child that is almost never serious and Liz is a scaredy cat and serious most of the time." She glances at Crona feeling so embarressed.

Not wanting him to say anything she speaks again. "The guest room is this way." she walks without looking back.

Crona goes through what she said in his head word by word.

Maka opens the door and turns on the light switch revealing a large and empty room.

"If you need anything my room is across the hall." for some strange reason she wants to stay with him, but decides against it. "Good night and don't let the nightmares bite." with that she leaves closing the door behind her.

Why would she say that?

That was a thing her a Akio use to say to each other before sleeping.

Once again she slams her head against the wall leaving another mark.

Adding this mark and the one from earlier she has now made eight marks and she has only been here for three days.

She forgets about that and instantly falls asleep when she gets on her bed.


Maka...

With her long dirty blond hair, glowing green eyes, and sweet smiles.

She is so nice to a test subject like me.

Crona lies on the bed in a fetal position scared again.

He doesn't want to sleep.

He doesn't want to replay all the awful memories.

He forces himself awake by thinking about Maka.

Her gentle touches that magically make him feel better.

His eyes get heavy.

She played with his hair and it tickeld.

He remembers the feeling and falls asleep with a smile on his face, but it doesn't last long.


"It's okay sweetly." she says in the fake voice she always uses when she does this.

She grabs a long needle with black liquid in it and she smiles wickedly.

He is scared.

He hates being strapped to this cold metal table and he doesn't like how tight his feet and hand are tied.

They hurt.

Everything hurts.

She is getting ready to poke him when he yells "Wait!" he looks over at his older brother laying motionless. "W-What did you d-do to Ragnarok?"

"Don't worry he's fine." her smile grows unnaturally larger. "I think.

At that point she stabs him with the needle.

He whimpers and squeezes his eyes tight expecting the pain to come.

When nothing happens he opens his eyes and sees her smile still on her face.

Then he feels it.

An excruciating pain in his head that feels like someone slamming a hammer against his head.

She is now frowning both of them knowing what is going to come next.

Not even seconds after the pain he starts having seizures.

They are worse than he has ever had.

His whole body moves uncontrollably slamming up and down.

He screams begging her to make it stop, but she doesn't care.

The only response he gets is the sound of the heavy door closing.

"No! Don't leave me." he screams in agony "P-Please" he begs

This continues for almost half a hour getting worse and worse.


Crona doesn't realize he is screaming until Maka comes barging into his room. "Whats wrong?" her eyes search his face frantically trying to find out what is wrong.

His screaming has stopped, but it has turned into tears.

He cannot cry in front of Maka anymore and he hides his tears by hiding behind his hands. "G-Go away." he says between hiccups.

"No."

"I s-said go away." he says a bit louder.

He hears Maka sigh. "Okay then, Goodnight." she opens and shuts the door without leaving and imitates foot steps.

When Crona thinks she has left he lets all of his cries out.

Crona feels the bed move slightly and he knows its Maka. "I-I told y-"

"I don't care." she pulls his hands away from his face forcing eyes contact "I'm not leaving you like this." she says more softly.

She wipes his tears slowly and carefully.

"I'm n-not a baby." he turns his head.

"I never said you were." she turns his head back toward her "Want me to tell you a story?"

"Y-Yes please." his tears stopping.

She lays her head on his chest listening to his heart beat accelerate and starts the story.

"There was once a tyrant that had two children.

They were twins, one boy and one girl.

The evil King only wanted a boy and decided to kill the girl.

However, when the wife found out she would not let him go through with it.

She begged her husband for hours and finally he agreed.

The next day the corpse of the bride was found.

True to his promise the King did not kill the pitiful child.

A few years later..."

Cronas eyes closed he was almost asleep and the last thing he felt was Maka kissing his forehead.