"Wow, you look exhausted."
It's not polite and certainly not what Marie was intending to say, but Sid and Nygus are wearing expressions that are so similar they look like they could be mirror images in spite of the dramatic differences in height and build and carriage. Sid grins in spite of the lines across his face and the shadows under his eyes; Nygus just looks at Marie without speaking.
The other weapon's lack of response is as normal as anything else, though, so Marie steps aside to let them in even as she starts an apology.
"Not that it's not great to see you, and of course you both look perfectly nice, just -"
"Like we haven't slept in a week," Sid finishes for her. He actually interrupts himself with a yawn he only half-covers with the back of a hand. "That would be because we haven't. Properly."
"Black Star causing trouble again?" Marie asks as she follows them down the hallway. By all rights she should be able to find her way back to the kitchen on her own, but when she leads it somehow ends up taking them twice as long as when she follows guests, and after a handful of visits everyone silently agreed that Nygus or Sid should head off the line.
"Always," Sid intones, and Nygus picks up with more detail in carefully precise tones at odd with the heaviness in her eyes.
"He's made a new friend. He and Maka are more trouble together than he manages to be alone."
"And he spends all his free time trying to invent new and exciting ways to show off when he sees her again." Sid finishes. "It's delightful."
"Sounds that way," Marie politely agrees. It is not that she doubts that Sid and Nygus are worn down by the constant demands of an 8-year-old, nor that she would get tired of the requirements of an adoptive parent quickly, but the idea of excessive noise is so foreign that it is hard for her to even contemplate in the echoing quiet of the laboratory, and there is a tiny spark of uncharitable jealousy at how smoothly the two work together even in casual conversation before she is able to squash it.
It is not that Stein is cold or distant. He's just eccentric. Introverted.
She has only just finished telling herself this, again, when the meister in question comes around the corner.
"Ah. Sid. Nygus," he says, in a tone that is not quite warm but much closer to it than the shy coolness Marie would like to convince herself is normal. "Good to see you. How's Black Star?"
"Exhausting," they say in perfect synchronization, and Stein pauses, looks at them for a longer moment than his initial once-over.
"I see that. Did he learn a new trick or is it more of the usual?"
"New friend. Maka Albarn. Charming girl on her own, but Black Star seems to be a terrible influence on her," Sid answers for the both of them.
Stein doesn't flinch. His blink would be unnoticed if Marie weren't looking for some sort of reaction. "Spirit's daughter?"
"Death Scythe's." Nygus corrects him.
"That's right. Death Scythe's." Stein looks away from them, down at his hands, and for a moment there is a flicker of amusement at the corners of his mouth. Then he looks back up and Marie realizes what she is doing and forces herself to stop cataloguing his movements.
"Kami's going to kill us if we don't keep them both somewhat in hand." Sid sighs and drops into a chair. His knees fold past the right angle at which they should rest; nothing is ever sized quite correctly for Sid. "How are you two doing?"
"We've been hearing about nothing but you all over the Academy," Nygus puts in. "You, and Death Scythe doing the work of four weapons right now. You're still working on that, right Marie?"
"Yep." Marie sits down as well, on one side of the couch, and tries to not be disappointed when Stein stays standing. "We've collected a few more souls in the last few weeks. I've still got a ways to go, but it's progress."
"Are you going to stay here in Death City after you graduate?" Sid asks.
"I don't really know. I, uh… I actually haven't really thought much beyond the Academy itself. I've been thinking I'd like to just take off, retire from being a weapon entirely, go out and have a family, settle down, you know?"
Nygus looks like she is trying very hard to calmly listen instead of enumerating all the things that are a bad idea about having children, but Sid is nodding. Stein doesn't look like anything other than faintly interested. Marie is doing her best to not look at him or think about him or imagine children with silver hair and green eyes and it is not proving particularly successful.
"Don't tell Death Scythe until you're clear of the city," Sid half-laughs. "He's really anxious for some more Death Weapons to take some of the pressure off him, he might take it upon himself to convince you to stick around."
"Azusa's getting closer too," Stein puts in. Marie doesn't look at him, but she can hear the grind of the screw as he twists it absently into a new alignment. "She doesn't seem the type to retire."
"She's…" Sid pauses, trying to find some polite phrase to describe the absent weapon.
"Driven," Nygus sets into the gap, and Sid nods agreement.
"That's putting it mildly," Marie offers. She wishes Azusa were here now. Sid and Nygus are wonderful to talk to, and seeing them is a rare occurrence especially now that they are less and less often available as Black Star becomes more demanding, but Azusa is comfortingly straightforward and blunt in a way that Marie has learned to appreciate over the past several months. Unfortunately Azusa flat-out refuses to spend any more time than necessary with "That Sadist," as she calls Stein, and all Marie's efforts to convince her otherwise have thus far failed.
"Lord Death will be happy to have her as soon as she graduates. You too, if you change your mind."
Marie smiles at Sid and promptly changes the subject. "Have you two been going out on many assignments yourselves?"
"Fewer." As usual, Sid does most of the speaking for the two of them. "One or two in the last month. Busy at home means we don't have the energy to be at the top of our form, but Lord Death wants to make sure we're in practice."
Marie lets the conversation wash over her without really listening. The low rumble of Sid's voice and the higher monotone of Stein's are both soothingly normal and not too distracting, so she can let the panic about her unknown future flood her brain and then fade out slowly until she can breathe again. Nygus is watching her, looking like nothing so much as a hawk observing a possible threat, but the other weapon doesn't say anything about the stress that Marie is sure she's not hiding. She is grateful to her for that; Azusa would have called her out on it. It's nice to pretend that everything is fine rather than tearing up her feelings by exposure, at least for a little while.