A/N:

Yay! People want more :3

EchoTheNerdWolf whoop whoop I'm doing something right ;P There's no worry that this will be rushed, I'm planning for this to not be a short story... I hope ;) Again my goal is to not make it too cheesy

bleachfanficfanatic Yay I'm so happy you're enjoying it! I'm trying to keep characters in character :P so I hope I won't rush making relationships develop

What Stein said kept going through my head. The idea that I was brought here on purpose did not sit well with me. And the fact that he said my soul was tampered with made me feel sick to my stomach, I couldn't get my head around it. As I got into the flat, I made a beeline for the bathroom. I ripped my clothes off, turned the water to scalding and scrubbed myself raw.

I felt dirty.

Defiled.

Tainted.

I stepped out of the spray, my body bright pink from the scalding water and my excessive scrubbing, but nothing took away the disgusted feeling I had. I changed into a pair of loose white trousers and a light blue top. I wasn't in the mood for anything, so I just went into the kitchen for some comfort food. I huffed after getting some pasta and slumped on the couch, I looked to see my window was open, I frowned thinking that I had closed it earlier. The wind hit me; soothing the still tingling skin on my arms. I sighed heavily, not wanting to believe any of this was real but there was no way for me to magically discover the reasons why I was here. I crossed my legs and rested my now cold food in my lap, my appetite suddenly gone. A tear rolled down my cheek, I quickly wiped it away. Funny, I didn't cry this much back home… but then I was rather happy back home.

I stood up and stared at the sink, and I threw my bowl against the wall. It smashed against it with a shatter and pieces of pottery went all over the floor. I swept my hands across the surface and knocked all the contents on the floor, each causing a huge mess. I screamed as tears went down my cheek, I kept hitting the walls and anything I could touch. I was just so frustrated with everything. "Hannah!" I heard a female voice call my name, and I looked behind me to see Maka and Soul running to me. I shook my head and lashed out against them. They weren't real. None of this had to be real.

Soul wrapped his arms around my wait trying to calm me down but I continued to struggle against his tough grip. "What the hell man?" He struggled out while trying to pin my arms down.

"Hannah!" Maka shouted at me. "Hannah calm down!"

I still don't know why they didn't leave me. They barely knew me yet they waited out my episode until I calmed enough for them to get me out of the kitchen. Maka was picking out glass from my hands and fixing the wounds I inflicted on myself while Soul went to clean up the kitchen. She dapped antiseptic on my red knuckles, every so often she would look at me and I didn't see any judgement there. "You wanna talk about it?" I didn't say anything, instead leaning my head forward letting my fringe hide my face from her.

Sure, Maka is a nice girl and I'm certain she'd never hurt me… but the real question is would she believe me? "I don't belong here." I mumbled.

Her head snapped back up at me, she rubbed my knee reassuringly. "What do you mean?" I didn't answer her. "We're here you know? We can help."

"I want to go home but I can't." A loose tear slid down my cheek. "I left things… rather badly."

"What about your mum?" I heard Soul ask as he sat next to me on the sofa.

Maka shot him a look as she was knelt on the floor sorting out the cuts on my feet. "She left a long time ago. I haven't heard from her since I was 9." I rubbed my eye. "I'm on my own here."

Soul placed a hand on my shoulder, when I looked at him he smiled gently at me. "You know… although Maka is terrible company most of the time, especially in the morning before breakfast…" I giggled slightly and Maka rolled her eyes at him. "And of course I'm the coolest guy ever so you know… we won't turn you away if you wanted to come over anytime."

I couldn't stop the smile that was forming on my face and I saw Maka mirrored mine. "But why?" I looked between them. "You've known me for like 1 day. How do you know you can trust me?"

Maka gave a gentle smile as she rubbed my knee in reassurance. "Let's just say we have a gut feeling about you."

"What does that gut feeling tell you?" I asked.

Soul put his whole arm around my shoulders and bumped me against him. "You may want to go home, but we want you to hang around for a little while longer."

Maka and Soul ended up staying over, we laid out blanket on the floor and we slept in the living room. Friendship worked quickly for them, and I wasn't going to push their kindness away. If I'm going to stay here for a while then I can't really afford to push them away… besides they're too likeable! Soul left at one point to get some change of clothing for them so they wouldn't rush off in the morning. I stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped around me. "Maka, you can hop in now." I called to her. She came out of my room with a towel in her arms, she was smiling but it wavered slightly when she caught a glimpse of my wrists. Self-consciously I touched the feint scars that had followed me to this world. "It's a long story." I shrugged.

She smiled all the same, her green eyes once again not judging me. "Well I hope you stay long enough to tell it." After she left I dried myself off and got changed into a pair of dark blue jeans and a red top with translucent sleeves that went to my wrists. I walked into the kitchen where there was a small wooden table in the middle. On it was a series of foods, Soul was there with a clip pinning his fringe out of the way with an apron on. "Did you make all this?" I asked.

He shrugged. "A cool guy has to know how to cook his ladies food." He added with a wink. I sat down and began to eat. Maka came along shortly after in her signature tartan skirt, shirt, and vest combo. She sat next me and we all dug in to the delicious food Soul had made. "This is great Soul." I said in between mouthfuls.

"Yeah it's good to know he's good for something." Maka mumbled.

"Hey!" He rebutted. We all burst out laughing and finished off the food.

When we were all finished we headed back to the school. We began the steps leading up to the school, we all seemed content in the silence between all of us. As we got into the foyer Kid, Liz, and Patty came over to us. "Hey Soul! Hey Maka! Hey Hannah!" Patty energetically greeted us, whereas Liz just waved at us.

I thought Maka was about to say something but Kid beat her too it. "Hannah you need to come with me, my father and Professor Stein would like a word." He said in a no nonsense voice.

I shrugged. "I'll see you later." I said to Maka and Sould before going off in the opposite direction with Kid.

We walked down the corridors in relative silence. His eyes darted to my bandaged hands. "What happened?" He asked.

I looked at him and he had an expression of both curiosity and concern. "I… I had a bit of a panic attack slash anger episode." He tilted his head, silently asking me to continue. "I broke several things in my kitchen, made a right mess of it in there, cut my hands and feet." I gauged his reaction but I couldn't work it out. "Thankfully Maka and Soul came over and managed to calm me down."

"You should have called me." He said sternly. "I'm not that far from you, you know? Myself, Liz, or Patty would have helped you work through this."

"Well to be fair, I wasn't planning on it. It came on suddenly. Just… my whole situation and everything." I looked at the floor.

"Do Maka and Soul know?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No. I just told them I was getting overwhelmed I guess."

He nodded. "Good. For now we need to keep this between us until we know what's really going on. I understand and would never hurt you, but others may see you as suspicious or even a threat." I smiled and nodded. "Promise me you'll come to me if you get down. Even if you're just a bit lonely, we always enjoy the company back home."

I looked at him and his smile was warm, I saw no hidden agenda, no threat… just a promise. "Okay, I promise."

If it were possible his smile got wider. He lightly grazed my bandaged hand with his own. "And don't hurt yourself."

"Aye aye Captain." I joked and he gently nudged me and let out a laugh. Kid and I entered the room and I saw Stein stood next to Death, Spirit was sitting on the stairs close by. I didn't like the look on Stein's face at all. "Hey, you wanted to see me?"

"Yah Yah kiddo, come in." Death called cheerily as he waved me over.

I smiled and shook my head. "You know, I'm not really a kid anymore, I'm 19 turning 20 in about a month." I joked.

"So? Only 2 or so years older than me." Kid said to me with a slight smirk.

"Really? You're 17?" I thought he was younger than that.

He almost laughed. "Why do you seem so surprised?" He asked.

I shrugged. "No reason."

I turned back to Death and he was shooting me a quizzical look before turning his attention to Stein. "Stein I believe you wanted to wanted to talk to the girl."

"Indeed." He began twisting the screw on his head; something I figured was a metaphor for him thinking. "You are to attend the classes held in the classrooms, but when the others do their meister or weapon training you will be with myself. I'll try and help you find out what happened to your soul."

I scratched my arm. "All due respect, and I'm grateful that you want to help me…" I met Stein's eyes. "But I want to go home. I don't want you wasting your time on me when I'm most likely nothing special."

Stein stopped twisting with a harsh click. "Your father tell you that?" Abruptly I lost my breath I had. He just stared at me, his eyes never loosing focus on my own and I couldn't stop the anger that spread on my face. "If there's something I'm very good at doing Hannah its reading people." His expression softened. "I'm not going to ask you what happened and I'm not asking you to open your past to us, I'll let you do that if you want to. But what I am asking, is to let me help you. Whether you believe it or not you were meant to be here."

"He's right kiddo." Death said in an overly cheerful voice. "We said it when we met you. There has to be a purpose as to why you're here."

"That's what I'm afraid of."