A/N: This chapter is dedicated to everyone who's in high school who has been forced to make a decision on their future.

~Stitches – 2 years, 10 months~

I can't believe it.

The class that I came to teach three years ago is only two months from graduation. They've all grown so much… most of them are taller than me, now. Then again, a lot of them were taller than me when we started.

Just recently, Maka turned Soul into a Deathscythe. I was very proud of the both of them. I remember the look on Maka's face and the admiration on Soul's. I can't believe they're all 17, 18 or 19… where did the time go? If I'm like this with my students, I'll be a mess when it's Stitches.

Stitches is still coming to school with Stein and I; she's still yet to stay with Mira for an entire day. She's not getting much less anxious about it; she's like Stein that way. He's an anxious sort of person generally, he can just suppress his anxiety during battle, which makes him such an efficient fighter.

Alright, I'd better go. I can hear yelling.

Marie x

"Alright, class, you can go." Stein said to the class, Stitches sitting on his lap. Admittedly, she had done better today; she didn't run away from Naigus until fourth lesson.

"I'm going to go and see Mira, okay?" Marie asked. Stein nodded.

"You want to go with Mama?" Stein asked his daughter. Stitches shook her head, leaning back on Stein. Marie smiled slightly and walked out of the room. Everyone in the class left except for Maka.

"Uh, Doctor Stein?" Maka asked, nervously. Stein looked up at her, Stitches sitting on his lap.

"Maka?" Stein asked back. Stitches smiled as Maka pulled a chair up to sit across from her teacher.

"W-Would I be able to talk to you about something?" she asked, glancing down.

"What is it?" Stein asked, turning Stitches around to lean on his chest as she signalled that she was getting tired.

"Graduation." Maka said. Stein nodded.

"Are you worried?" Stein asked. Maka shook her head.

"It's not that, I just… How did you become a teacher here?" Maka asked.

"Well, Shinigami-sama asked me to do so." Stein said. Maka looked up.

"Uh, well… how would I go about becoming a teacher here? After graduation, I mean." Maka said. Stein raised an eyebrow in thought.

"Well… we could go and see Shinigami-sama. I'm sure he'll have some answers for you." Stein said.

"Okay." Maka said. Stein stood up and carefully hoisted his daughter a bit further over his shoulder.

"B-But can we go without an appointment?" Maka asked. Stein rolled his eyes.

"Rules are made to be broken, Maka." Stein remarked, quietly.

"Are you supposed to be condoning rule-breaking, Doctor?" Maka asked, following her teacher down the hallways. Stein stopped slightly.

"Probably not." He began. Maka looked up at him.

"So, don't tell Shinigami-sama I said that."

"So, Maka-chan, you'd like to teach?" Shinigami-sama asked.

"Yes. How would I go about it?" she asked. Stitches stood next to her, now well and truly awake.

"Well, you'd have to choose a specialty. There's no reason you couldn't teach an entire class, but everyone has a specialty." He said. Stitches giggled and ran up to Shinigami-sama.

"Hello!" she said, excitedly. Shinigami-sama chuckled slightly, picking up the little girl in his large, white hands. She giggled inanely as she inspected the rather odd looking hands of Shinigami-sama.

"But what would I specialise in?" Maka asked. Stein, from behind them, answered.

"Soul perception." he said, without hesitation.

"But-" Maka began.

"He's right, you know. You have soul perception techniques that rival that of a shinigami." Shinigami-sama said. Maka looked down and felt a blush run across her face.

"Really?" Maka asked. Shinigami-sama nodded, Stitches still poking at his hands.

"Yes, you do. May I ask, why the sudden desire to teach?" Shinigami-sama asked.

"Well, now that Soul is one of your Deathscythes, I needed to think about what I was going to do." Maka said. Shinigami-sama nodded.

"I am glad you're thinking about your future, Maka. Kid doesn't know what he wants to do. Someday, he will replace me, but I'm planning on staying around for a long while yet." Shinigami-sama remarked. Maka nodded.

"Thank you, Shinigami-sama." Maka said, standing up and walking over to him. He nodded at her. Stitches' face lit up and she reached her hands out.

"Maka!" she exclaimed, grabbing at the air in front of Maka's body. Maka smiled and took the little girl out of Shinigami-sama's hands. Stitches had a fascination with Maka, and Maka loved the little girl. She was like the little sister she never had, and Stitches had someone to look up to other than her parents.

"Hey, Stitches. How are you?" Maka asked, taking the little girl's hand and wrapping it around her finger.

"Good! Look at all the teeth I have!" Stitches said, smiling widely at Maka. The teeth that she possessed were small and white. Maka chuckled slightly.

"That's a lot of teeth. Did it take you very long to grow them?" Maka asked.

"Yes." Stitches replied, her smile still wide.

"You want to go back to your Papa now?" Maka asked the little girl. She nodded and Maka set her down. She ran over to Stein, clinging onto his leg and continuing to smile.

"Well, I'd best be off. Thank you, Shinigami-sama, Doctor Stein." Maka said, leaving Shinigami-sama's office and walking down the hallway. Stein walked over to Shinigami-sama, Stitches still hanging off his leg.

"You'll give her a job, right?" Stein asked, plucking the toddler from his legs and holding her against his side.

"Of course!" Shinigami-sama said, sticking his hands out to the side. Stein nodded.

"She's a smart girl." He said, turning around and walking out of the office. Shinigami-sama watched as Stein and Stitches left. As they walked out of sight, he simply thought to himself.

"Kid wouldn't speak to me ever again if I didn't give her a job."

"A-And Aunt Mira showed me the…the thingy…" Stitches said, curled up at her mother's side on her parents' bed. Marie continued to stroke her daughter's hair whilst Stein continued to engage in her tired conversation, a veiled attempt at getting her to sleep.

"Sounds good. Anything else happen today?" Stein asked.

"And…And I did the other thing." Stitches said, her eyes closing. Stein smirked slightly as the girl turned over and buried herself in her mother's chest.

"Thank goodness." Marie said, sitting up and placing Stitches gently over her shoulder. She stood from the bed and walked out of the room. Stitches awoke slightly as her mother placed her down in her bed.

"Mama?" she asked, sleepily.

"Yes, baby?" Marie asked, brushing her daughter's hair out of her face, kneeling down to her eye level.

"Do you love Papa?" she asked, quietly. Marie smiled.

"I do. Very much." Marie replied.

"Does Papa love you?" she asked back, her eyes half closed. Marie giggled slightly.

"I sure hope so, sweetheart. I think he does." Marie said, tucking Stitches into her bed.

"Okay. I love you, Mama." Stitches said, her eyes closing.

"I love you too, Stitches." Marie said as she kissed her daughter on the forehead and turned around. She walked over to the doorframe and saw Stein standing just outside.

"What are you doing here?" Marie asked.

"Just saying goodnight to my daughter." Stein said, walking past Marie and kneeling down next to Stitches, who was barely awake.

"Papa?" Stitches asked, turning over and rubbing her eyes slightly.

"It's alright, Stitches, you can just stay there. But I want to answer your question for you." Stein said to the little girl, quietly.

"Which question?" Stitches asked. Stein sighed.

"I love your mama very much. I love your mama and I love you more than anything else in this world." Stein began. Marie stopped at the doorway and looked on.

"The world out there… bad things happen. People do terrible things to other people and there's not a lot of innocence." Stein pulled the covers up over his daughter's shoulders, tucking her in.

"But you and your mama… you remind me why people keep on living. You give me a reason not to destroy the world around me. Because the world, no matter how dark it gets, is going to protect you two in the long run, even when I can't." Stein continued. Marie walked quietly into the room, feeling tears welling in her eyes.

"So, yes. I love your mama. And you. Very much." Stein said. He wasn't sure how much Stitches had understood, but she was a very bright little girl. The smile on her face suggested that something got through.

"I love you too, Papa." She smiled, sitting up and wrapping her small arms around Stein's neck. Stein hugged her back, a flicker of innocence in a harsh world.

Stein turned around to feel slender arms wrap around his neck and a familiar set of lips press against his own. Stein made it to his feet without breaking the kiss, and when he was stable once more, Marie pulled away and pressed her forehead against his.

"Why do you do that?" Marie asked. Stein raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Stein asked.

"You go around, being all modest and unassuming, then you hit me in the heart with something amazing like that." Marie shook her head and smiled.

"… I'm sorry?" he searched for the right answer.

"Don't be. Please… don't be sorry." Marie smiled. She knew that, although her wavelength had been the thing that had kept him stable and sane, that the way he acted was truly him, that Franken Stein was not the cold, emotionless being that most people believed he was.

Stein and Marie turned to Stitches, who was now asleep. Her mouth was open in a tiny 'o' shape, and her breathing was quiet and peaceful.

Stitches was a flicker of innocence in a world full of harsh, terrible things.

She was their flicker of innocence.

A/N: FLUFF FLUFFITY FLUFF FLUFF FLUFF. That is all.