Nope. Don't own Soul Eater.

Innocent Hearts, Tainted Souls

Chapter 10: Clash

Stein blinked his eyes open.

"Dude. Seriously; you need to stop passing out on me," Spirit's voice reached his ears. The boy turned to his friend.

"What happened?" Stein asked quietly. Examining his surroundings, he discovered that he appeared to be in a hospital. Spirit sat on a chair next to his bed, and the clock on the wall read five o'clock; two hours after they had located their target. "We were fighting the kishin egg, and then…" He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I passed out."

Spirit sighed as well. "You were analyzed by the doctor," He murmured, "And we agreed that you hadn't lost enough blood or spent enough energy to pass out."

Stein looked back towards the ceiling. He closed his eyes; taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Then what's wrong with me?" He asked quietly. "Please let it not be heart problems," He thought to himself. "If it's heart problems, they won't let me be a meister any longer because I might kill myself if I fight too hard."

The redhead frowned a little. "Well, the doctor couldn't find any other physical problems. He was stumped," He said.

The silver haired boy didn't open his eyes, but his mind was churning. "It could be a soul issue, then," He thought. "There have been cases of souls being in conflict with themselves. This will have different effects depending on the person," He remembered from one of his textbooks. "Is this because of the difference between Mom's and Dad's souls? I inherited both Mom's madness and Dad's humanity. Maybe I pass out and get really exhausted in training because my soul is trying to keep me from fighting to the breaking point of the conflict. But what happens after I reach that point?" He took a deep breath again. "Something my soul is preventing my body from doing."

Spirit's brow furrowed. "Stein, why don't you tell me anything?" He snapped harshly, causing his partner's eyes to snap open and turn to face him. "I know you're thinking of something. If you have an idea of what's wrong with you, you can tell me. I can help. Why do you always keep secrets?"

Stein was silent for a moment. Once again, he contemplated how much to tell his friend. There could be advantages in confiding his problems in someone else, but there was also the possibility of Spirit spilling some information accidentally.

"… I'm sorry," He said after a while. "There are some things that are better left secret."

The redhead glared at his partner for a moment longer, but then he shook his head. "Fine. Let's just get home," He muttered.

Stein nodded, sliding out of the bed. "Right," He said, wincing a little as he moved. His wounds still hurt, but he gave no other indication of pain as they checked out of the hospital.

The two boys were in the plane shortly, flying to Death City. Spirit was quickly asleep and snoring, but Stein still stared out the window at the vast expanse of the stars in the night's sky. Not closing his eyes, he began to use Soul Perception. He knew that a lot of meisters could sense souls with their eyes open, but it took extreme talent to be able to identify them entirely without closing one's eyes. Stein smiled a little in the satisfaction that he was able to do so. His smile dropped, however, when he examined his own soul.

"The witch was right; the center's purple," He murmured, wincing a little. "My soul's been tainted since I was born, and it's only getting stronger," He closed his eyes again, trying to figure out which parts of him were a result of his mother. The madness, definitely. The fire witch had said that his abnormal promise and strength at his age were a result of that as well. He was sure he didn't have any magical abilities, and as far as he knew, there were no male witches. He was a human. "A human body with a witch's soul," He thought, "And they're tearing each other apart for control of my mind."

The silver-haired boy shook his head to try and clear his thoughts, taking the blanket that the stewards had provided for him and pulling it around his shoulders. He glanced at Spirit briefly, his hands shaking a little. Instead, he turned away, reminded himself that he didn't have his dissection kit and if he did that he wouldn't take his friend apart again anyway, and then let sleep overcome him.

The plane's P.A. system dinged, waking Stein.

"Would you like a snack now, sir?" A stewardess asked a very drowsy Spirit across the aisle.

Stein turned, seeing the redhead yawn. "Just a bottled water," He muttered. She nodded, and then turned to Stein.

"Would you like something?"

The silver-haired boy shook his head. "No thank you," He murmured, watching his partner. The scythe had already gone back to sleep, leaving his water bottle in the cup holder next to him. With no expression at all on his face, Stein unscrewed the lid on the bottle, swiftly splashed Spirit with it, and then put the cup back and sprang back into his seat before Spirit could make sense of anything.

"What the heck was that?!" He spluttered.

Stein glanced over at him passively. "You must have left your water open before he hit turbulence, and it splashed," He explained falsely, but he lied well.

Spirit quickly screwed the lid back on his water, mumbling to himself that he was sure he never even opened it, and shaking water out of his bright hair. After he turned away, Stein couldn't resist a smirk.

When they landed, it was still dark in Death City. The two sleepy boys took a late bus back to the boys' dorms, and even Stein was dragging his feet.

"That was exhausting," Muttered Spirit as he switched on the light to their room.

Stein yawned a little. "Look at the bright side," He muttered, "We weren't gone a few days." He set his bag down, climbing into bed without even changing. "Now get some sleep; we have school in a few hours," He deadpanned.

"Huhhh?!" Spirit exclaimed. "No way I'm going to school tomorrow!"

"Then I'm dragging you," Replied Stein. "Sleep now 'cause I won't let you sleep through class."

The redhead rolled his eyes as he kicked off his shoes and grumbled something about an "insomniac psychopath".

Stein stared at his friend in horror. He should've expected this, he thought. But why now? The morning had been all right, and Spirit had complied easily after two hours of sleep. Well, he complained up a storm before Stein threatened to show the redhead his own intestines. Then he shut up. Maybe he had been upset at him. Whatever the reason, Spirit had said he needed to use the bathroom in the middle of class, and hadn't come back. Stein volunteered to look for him, and found him kissing a girl he didn't recognize. It definitely wasn't Kami.

After staring for a moment, Stein realized that Spirit hadn't seen him, he was so absorbed in that girl. The meister's expression hardened. He stormed up to Spirit, yanking him away from the girl.

"What do you think you're doing?!" He snapped harshly. Spirit's eyes widened, while the girl's face flushed red in embarrassment, her legs then carrying her rapidly back to the classroom. Stein didn't care about her. What mattered right now was the cheating teen in front of him. "You have a girlfriend!" He continued.

Surprisingly, Spirit didn't shy away as he normally did when faced the enraged Stein. Instead, he became defensive. "So what?" He shot back. "I was just kissing her!"

Stein was shaking with rage. He was so livid to the point that he knew he needed to calm down, so he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before facing his partner again. "You're going to keep doing that, aren't you?" He said. Spirit scowled at him. "You're going to keep saying 'it's just this' and 'it's just that', but someday you're going to go too far. Someday you're going to break someone's heart, they'll leave you, and you'll be all alone."

As he spoke, the anger began to drain from Spirit's face. He didn't look sorry or saddened, but still a bit defensive. "You can't predict the future, Stein," He muttered. "You don't know that. I plan on staying with Kami, and she'll understand. That girl just now, and the other girls I've dated, I never really loved, okay? But I love Kami."

Stein frowned, crossing his arms. His gaze met with his partner's in a silent impasse. After a minute, however, he sighed. "Spirit, we agreed on something. Back when I was passed out in the dispensary after the witch attacked me," He stated. Spirit nodded a little, but otherwise showed no reaction. "We agreed that we'd keep each other in line. You'd stop me from going mad, and I'd make sure you didn't do anything stupid. That's all I'm trying to do, all right?"

The redhead was quiet for a moment as he watched the floor, but then he turned his gaze back to Stein. "Fine," He snapped curtly. "I'll try and stop."

"Good," The meister nodded as he began to walk off. After a hesitant moment, Spirit followed him.

Not a few hours later, Stein tried frantically to stop the shaking that had started in his hand. To try and do homework was impossible now, but his conscience was loud enough that night that he didn't want to go outside and murder another animal.

After a bit of nervous pacing, the silver-haired boy sighed. He needed to focus his mind on other things, he decided. The perfect solution arose quickly; annoy Spirit. Seeing as his partner was at work at the moment, it'd also give Stein an excuse to take a walk.

The coffee shop wasn't far from the dorms, and Stein got there relatively quickly. Upon entering Deathbucks, however, he discovered that Spirit seemed pretty flustered already. The sleepy redhead was one of the only two waiters in the entire shop. Stein debated with himself for a minute, wondering he should leave his weapon alone and let him do his job. Instead, he decided that since Spirit already seemed close to a meltdown that it wouldn't be hard to push him over the edge. The silver-haired boy smirked a little as he sat down in Spirit's half of the café, which he had determined was his from observation. He couldn't help but smirk a little when he saw his partner's expression upon noticing him. The older teen paled visibly, stepping cautiously towards his friend.

"What are you doing here, Stein?" He hissed a little.

Stein raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to ask me what I'd like to order?" He asked.

Spirit gritted his teeth a little, but pulled out his notepad. "Fine," He said through clenched teeth. "May I take your order, sir?"

Stein looked at the menu. "Actually, I haven't chosen yet," He replied. Spirit opened his mouth to speak, presumably to say that he was going to wait on another table in the meantime, but Stein held up his hand to stop him. "No, I'll only take a minute," He insisted calmly, giving no indication that he was doing this on purpose.

The redhead took a glance over at his boss behind the counter to see if he was watching, and then turned hurriedly back to Stein. "Look, you sadistic nut job, I have other customers to wait on. I know you're just messing with me, so I'm leaving," He growled quietly as to not be heard by anyone but his partner.

"Wait," Interjected Stein, "I know what I want."

Spirit rolled his eyes. "Fine. What is it?"

Stein began to look thoughtful again. "Well, I thought I wanted the number four, but now I'm not so sure…"

Spirit began fuming. "I'm outta here," He grumbled, beginning to storm off.

"I'll have the number five!" He called after him. He smirked when he saw Spirit stop, write the order down, and then go to the next table. Messing with his partner was so satisfying. However, as payback, Spirit didn't give him his order until he was one of the last customers left. Stein knew his strategy; the younger boy couldn't give a bad report on the slow waiter to his boss because that could get him fired, and he wanted that money back. So he just waited, growing ever more impatient by the minute.

"Here." Spirit was smirking now as he set the coffee down on the table in front of him.

Stein took one glance at it, and then turned back to Spirit. He had concluded that he had to try one last retaliation. "I ordered the number four," He deadpanned.

Spirit's eye twitched. "… You did not," He whimpered.

Stein shrugged, taking a sip of his coffee. "You're right; I didn't," He admitted. Spirit sighed with relief and sat in the seat across from him.

"You're being mean," He muttered while he laid his arms on the table and rested his head there. "My shift's nearly over, anyway. Not many customers at seven-thirty," He mumbled, yawning a little. "But having to work after that little sleep… That was exhausting, ya know. You're the one who told me to come in today, Stein. Did you have this little prank planned from the beginning?"

The silver-haired boy shook his head. "No, actually. I thought it up while I was doing homework," He explained.

"Lovely," The redhead sighed. "So when you're bored, you daydream about torturing me."

Stein shrugged. "Pretty much," He admitted. Spirit rolled his eyes but didn't reply, and so Stein sipped his drink in silence for the next few minutes.

"Ya know," Spirit said again, ending the brief silence. Stein glanced up to look at him. "What happened earlier, the conversation about girls and stuff that we had, it got me thinking."

"Thinking that you're not going to do it again?" Stein asked.

Spirit narrowed his eyes slightly. "I'm going to ignore that comment. Anyway, I've determined that you need a girl, Stein."

The silver-haired boy raised an eyebrow. "My parents are under the impression that eleven is too young to start dating," He stated. He always spoke of his parents in the present tense, even to someone who knew they were dead. It helped hide a bit of the pain.

"Pfft," Spirit blew it off. "Kid, I started dating when I was nine."

Stein watched him for a moment in silence. "… You're hoping that if I get a girlfriend myself, I'll be easier on you about the subject," He muttered, going back to his coffee.

"Yes," Spirit admitted instantly, shrugging. "Still, it's worth a try. Plus, there's a girl who likes you already."

The silver-haired boy frowned a little upon hearing this. Someone who could love him, with his level of curtness? And even if she didn't know about his dissection habits, and he hoped whoever she was didn't, it wasn't hard to figure out that he was a little sadistic. Okay, maybe slightly more than a little. She must be an incredibly rare and incredible girl to like him despite that, he thought. Stein had always been more mature than most other boys his age, and he hadn't seen girls as repulsive since he was six. Although, until he was eight, he was convinced that they hailed from another planet. He got over that quickly.

"Who is it?" He asked, curious to meet what he now saw as his sympathetic admirer.

Spirit smirked at his reaction. "I knew you'd be excited," He grinned. "Although, you already know the girl."

Stein went over a mental list of girls he knew. These girls would have to be mutual friends with Spirit for him to know about it, right? That narrowed it down a little bit. Azusa obviously didn't have a crush on him, or anybody. He wondered if that girl was capable of love, honestly. That only left one option…

"Oh no…" Stein groaned.

"Marie thinks you're absolutely perfect," Spirit grinned.

Stein's eye twitched. He looked down at his empty coffee cup, then shoved it in front of Spirit.

"More coffee," He demanded, determining that he'd need more caffeine before he could deal with this.

This chapter's named after the clash of Stein's two halves, and his confrontation with Spirit. ;) Now, clickie the little "review" button. Please? If you like this story, review, follow, favorite, something. Anything. Do all three. Feedback of any kind is appreciated, and it gives me the confidence to write more :) See ya next chap, guys!