A/N: This chapter is dedicated to anyone who had ever made flat-pack furniture and knows how much of a bitch it is. Oh, Crona's mentioned in this chapter. It's Fem!Crona. Problem? IDGAF.
"This makes absolutely no sense." Stein said, glancing up at Marie. She was looking through the instruction booklet for the cot she and Stein had just acquired. She was still in her pyjamas; after all, it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
"Oh! Here we go...no...that's in a another language." Marie said. Stein took the instruction book from her.
"That's because it's upside down." Stein said. He turned it around but his face only became more puzzled.
"No...it was the right way around. What language is that, even?" Stein asked.
"I don't know." Marie said, exasperatedly.
"This is hopeless." Stein said. Marie took the booklet from him.
"Hang on, here! I can read these." Marie said.
"Finally. Alright, where do we start?" Stein asked.
"Okay, it says here to insert rod A into slot B." Marie said.
"Isn't that how we got into this situation in the first place?" Stein smirked.
"What are you, twelve?" Marie asked.
"Sorry." Stein said, taking the two pieces and slotting them together.
"Then you take that bit over there and put it into this bit here." Marie said, pointing to two parts of the cot construction. Stein nodded and connected them.
"Could you pass me the screws?" Stein asked.
"Yeah." Marie nodded. She tried to lean down off of the chair to get them. She struggled to reach down. Stein turned around to see why Marie hadn't passed him the screws yet.
"Marie?" Stein asked, before seeing her struggle. Marie looked up to see Stein smiling.
"Don't you laugh. You should try carrying around all this extra weight." Marie said.
"I'll get them, Marie." Stein said, grabbing the small packet of screws, allowing Marie to sit back, taking a long sigh.
"You feeling okay?" Stein asked, fastening another bar of the cot onto the frame.
"Yeah, yeah. Just having a lot of sympathy for beached whales at the moment." Marie said as she dropped the instruction booklet and rested her hands upon her stomach.
"Now, come on. You don't look like a beached whale." Stein said to her.
"I feel like a beached whale." Marie shrugged. Stein looked over at her.
"I... can't respond to that without sounding like an idiot." Stein said, turning back to the construction. Marie raised an eyebrow.
"Hey! What would you say that would make you sound like an idiot?" Marie asked.
"Well, I can't say that. I'll sound like an idiot." Stein smirked.
"You're already sounding like an idiot." Marie giggled.
"Thanks." Stein replied. Marie's face dropped.
"I'm sorry!" Marie said, worriedly. Stein turned and chuckled.
"You're very high strung, aren't you?" Stein asked.
"I'm not high strung! Stop it!" Marie said, clenching her fists. Stein glanced bad at her and couldn't help but chuckle. He pushed his glasses over the bridge of his nose, picking up the instruction booklet and reading it.
"You know, we never fight. I just fight at you." Marie said.
"Mm, but you're pregnant. You're allowed to do that." Stein said. Marie looked at him, exasperatedly. She felt a horribly familiar feeling rise up in her stomach; and for a change, it wasn't nausea.
"Why are you so tolerant of me?" Marie asked him, quietly. Stein noticed the stain in her voice; any half-decent meister would have.
"What?" Stein asked, moving over to Marie and kneeling in front of her.
"W-Why did you let me stay here? Why didn't you just tell me to go somewhere else?" Marie asked.
Suddenly, it clicked. Stein's eyes widened as he took Marie's hands.
"Marie...I let you stay here because I trust you. And I know what you're really like." Stein said.
This was one of the situations where Stein had to take care of Marie.
Marie's parents had always seen her as defective after they found out her weapon abilities. They sent her off to Shibusen as soon as they could. That was one of the reasons Marie had taken such care of Crona; even forgiving her after she slipped Medusa's snake into her system. Marie knew what it was like to be tortured by her own parents. Ignored; always an afterthought. To her parents, Marie was a mistake. She was brought into this world and wasn't right. That had been drilled into Marie's brain for the first decade of her life.
Marie began to hyperventilate slightly. She hadn't had one of these attacks for a while now. She had them, sometimes, whilst Stein was still under the full influence of his madness. They were terrible times for Marie; Stein couldn't help her. Now he could. He stood up, pulling Marie up with him. She was pulled into his embrace reluctantly. Stein hated doing this; she struggled, but he had no choice.
"No! Don't! I'm not worth it!" Marie said, her voice raised, choking back tears.
"Shh, shh..." Stein said the two words which always calmed Marie down. Hell, they weren't even full words. Marie eventually stopped struggling and immersed herself in Stein's hold. She pulled away after they had stood there, silently, for a couple of minutes. She looked up at him.
"You back?" Stein asked, quietly. Marie nodded.
"I'm sorry. That hasn't happened for months." Marie whispered.
"Don't apologise. Come on, you should rest." Stein said, placing his arm around Marie's waist and leading her to the bedroom.
"Yeah." Marie said, following. She pulled back the covers and laid in bed. Stein kissed her on the forehead.
"Right, I'll come back and check on you soon." Stein said. Marie smiled contently.
"Thanks." Marie said, taking a deep breath, slipping off her eyepatch and placing it on the bedside table.
"Alright. I'm going to go back to building the cot that Death himself couldn't understand." Stein said.
"Okay." Marie said, tiredly. Stein began to walk out of the room. Before he did, he swivelled around to face Marie one more time.
"Hey, Marie?" Stein asked.
"Stein?" Marie asked.
"I kept you here because I wanted you here." Stein said. Marie's face softened as she replied in a small voice.
"I know." she said, closing her eyes. Stein smirked at the spectacle of Marie's sudden change, shook his head and walked back to finish construction.
Marie awoke a couple of hours later, rubbed her eyes and pushed herself up in the bed. She yawned as she slipped her legs out of the bed, standing up and trying to push herself off of the mattress. She landed with a soft 'oomph' as her legs buckled and she fell back onto the bed. She tried to get up once again, but her body failed her. She reluctantly took a deep breath and called out.
"Stein?" Marie asked, loudly. He walked into the room and saw Marie sitting on the bed, a defeated look on her face.
"What's wrong?" Stein asked, walking over to her. She glared at him.
"Can't get up?" Stein asked. Marie nodded, dejectedly. Stein sat down next to her and wrapped his hand firmly around her waist. Marie placed her arm around his shoulder as he pulled her off the bed.
"Thanks." Marie said to Stein.
"That's alright. Only a little while longer." Stein said.
"Yeah." Marie smiled.
"Here, come on, I have to show you something." Stein said, taking Marie's hand and leading her into what would soon be their daughter's bedroom. Stein put his hands over Marie's eyes and walked her in.
"You ready?" Stein asked.
"If you don't take your hands off my eyes, I'll hit you." Marie said.
"I'll take that as a yes." Stein said, taking his hands away from Marie's eyes. As he did, Marie saw the cot. Stein had finished building it while she was sleeping. It was a quaint little cot; Marie chose it, and it fit in the corner of the room. Of course, their daughter wouldn't be using it for a little while after she was born, but it was just perfect.
"Oh, Stein! It's amazing." Marie said, throwing her arms around the silver haired scientist and hugging him tightly.
"It was nothing." Stein smiled.
"Nothing? Of course it was something." Marie said, looking up at him.
"Once I found instructions I could read, it made sense." Stein smirked.
"Thank you, Stein." Marie smiled.
"Now we've gotta build the rest of the furniture." Stein said.
"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it." Marie remarked. She held Stein tightly and looked up at him.
"I know you wanted me here." Marie said, quietly. Stein placed his hand on Marie's head, stroking her golden hair.
"I know," Stein mouthed silently, "I know."
A/N: So, I wanted to put in a little bit about Marie's past, because she's such an underexplored character, which is both a good and a bad thing. It's bad because she's amazing and I wish we could learn more about her, but it's good because it gives us creative license in stories. I've always had the feeling that Marie's quirkiness had to stem from something. So, that's my take on it all. :)