A/N: In the anime/manga, the DWMA's Death Festival is only a battle tournament that the E.A.T. class can participate in, however a little over 20 years has passed since the time of the anime and the DWMA has undergone a change of leadership in the meantime, so I'm taking some artistic liberties and writing it as something closer to a traditional school festival (keeping the battle tournament, of course).
You might have noticed the lovely colored version of this story's cover. The cover was designed by LianneSilver927, and features the main cast of the story. I'm really happy with how that turned out, so thanks sis!
Review Responses:
AmyNChan, there's no way to answer that question without giving anything away, so I'll just say 'no spoilers'~. But I'm glad you liked the omake!
mercer heller, I'm not sure, honestly. I'll write until it's done, but I get the feeling this might turn out being kind of long. We'll see how it turns out.
fpjohn, at the end of the manga, they kind of made it a rule that the DWMA would no longer collect witch's souls to create Death Weapons, which is why Soul is the last ever Death Scythe. I'm assuming this was at least in part to smooth things over with the Witch Assembly, so I'm guessing they have to send any souls they do end up with back.
fanficlove2014, yep, Rei is still figuring out what pushes buttons, and he and Ayame have an interesting effect on each other. I'm glad you liked the fight scenes, and yes, the two of them are getting stronger and closer. Glad you thought the witch was creepy. She was written to be. ^^
Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Call to Arms; The Death Festival Tournament?
Angela Leon, chameleon witch and DWMA meister, walked into her apartment with a loud sigh, tossing her hat onto an arm chair and flopping backwards onto the couch. A large green lizard poked its head out from behind the nearest couch cushion and she giggled softly, reaching out and running a finger down its back as it nuzzled her cheek.
"Hey, Pascal," she said. "Did you miss me?"
Shelley Stein watched her out of the corner of her eye, hanging up her DWMA jacket. Visits to the Witch Assembly always put her meister in a strange mood. Shelley wouldn't claim to know Angela the best—that honor went to her former bodyguard and surrogate father Mifune—but she thought she came pretty close. She let Angela play with her familiar for a moment, the young witch teasing the chameleon by waving her finger around in front of its face, and stepped into the kitchen to start a cup of tea. Proper tea, not the tea that her mother always claimed to make but that somehow always ended up becoming coffee. She set the kettle on the stove, then stepped back into the living room.
Angela had stopped playing with Pascal, the chameleon resting on the sofa cushion behind her head as she stared up at the apartment ceiling. Shelley perched on the arm of the armchair nearest her, being careful not to sit on her partner's hat by accident. Her mother would know exactly what to say, but Shelley wasn't Marie Mjolnir, not by any stretch of imagination. So she waited instead for Angela to speak. The kettle whistled before she did and Shelley got up, fixing two mugs of tea and setting one on the coffee table for Angela before taking her own back to her perch.
"Did you feel anything weird at the DWMA?" Angela asked after a while. She didn't reach for her tea.
"Not more than usual," Shelley said, taking a sip of her own drink. "Why?"
"No reason," said Angela, shaking her head. "I just…can't help but feel like I'm missing something. Do you remember what Nerissa said, at the Witch Assembly?"
Shelley nodded. The sea witch had mentioned it to Angela while Shelley was standing several feet away, reporting back to the DWMA. The witch clearly hadn't thought that Shelley would be listening in, but she had better ears than most people gave her credit for. "Something about the Morrigan," Shelley said, "How no one's heard from her in a long time."
"She withdrew from the witch world after her daughter's death," Angela said. "She believes her daughter was killed by the DWMA. Of course, I was still a kid when it happened, and as usual, no one wants to tell me anything."
"It's only natural for them to be suspicious," said Shelley, adjusting her glasses. "It's only been twenty-one years since the accords were put into place, and you were raised at the DWMA."
"I know that," said Angela. "But I still think I'm missing something. Something to do with the DWMA and the Witch Assembly."
"Well," Shelley amended, taking a sip of her tea. "There were a lot more ravens than there should have been in town today."
Angela stared up at the ceiling, frowning in thought.
"Ravens, huh…?"
Rei slid into his seat beside Vayne a few moments before the bell rang, Ayame dropping into her seat next to him. Vayne looked up from where he was leaning back in his seat, his feet propped up on the desk, and gave them a slow smile.
"Nearly missed the bell again," he said. "You know, school starts at the same time everyday."
"Shut it," Rei said. "I don't want to hear it."
"What's keeping you in the mornings anyway?" Vayne asked, sitting up and sliding his feet off the desk. "You're usually pretty on top of things."
Rei's frown deepened, his mind going back to the events of this morning.
"Ayame?!" Rei called, walking up and down the apartment with a mug of coffee in his hand. "Ayame, where are you?! We have to go or we're going to be late! Ayame?"
"Here!" he heard Ayame shout from outside one of the second floor windows.
Rei blinked, leaning out the window with his coffee in his hand. Ayame was clinging to the side of their apartment building, her fingers gripping the windowsill as her feet found purchase some of the embellishments on the side of the building.
"What are you doing?" Rei asked, frowning at her.
"Training," said Ayame, flashing him a bright grin. "You know your grandfather just left Chupa Cabra?"
"I really did not need to know that," Rei said. He took a half-step away from the window. "Come on up. We really need to get going."
"Roger!" Ayame said brightly, hoisting her legs up so that they were under herself and springing in through the window. Into Rei. Into his coffee cup.
Rei let out a shout as he found himself falling backward, the coffee splashing right onto the front of his uniform jacket. He yelped.
"Ayame!" he said as he landed on the floor.
"Whoops, I'm sorry!" said Ayame, rushing to help him up. "Here, I got you."
"No—," Rei said, struggling to find purchase on the now coffee-slick floor. "Ayame, just—."
He jerked away from her as she reached for him, the motion making her lose her balance and fall forward, landing in the slowly spreading coffee stain. Ayame sprang up, eyes wide, and glanced down at the front of her shirt.
"Ah! It's on me!"
"I told you not to—." Rei sighed. "—Here, just help me clean this up."
"I'll grab the paper towels, you grab fresh clothes?"
"Got it," said Rei, already springing up and running, first to his room then to hers. "Just hurry! We're gonna be late—!"
"I really don't want to talk about it," said Rei, letting out a breath.
Beside him, Ayame laughed nervously, twiddling her fingers together. Maka stepped through the door to the classroom a few moments later, and all conversation ground to a halt.
"I have the results from your extracurricular assignments," she said. "It looks like most of you did well, with a few minor difficulties. I'm very proud of all of you. You acted as real representatives of the DWMA, and I'd like to encourage you to keep up the good work." She smiled, her eyes lingering a little longer on Rei and his friends as she looked around the room.
"Today's homeroom will be a little different," Maka said, setting her gradebook aside. "As many of you know, the Death Festival is coming up soon. For those of you who don't know, the Death Festival is an annual tradition at the DWMA, occurring every year on Halloween. The highlight of the Death Festival is of course the Battle Tournament, which is open to all E.A.T. students at the DWMA. You aren't required to sign up for the tournament, but if you do want to, tournament sign-up sheets will be posted on the mission board. If you are not doing the tournament, you'll be helping your class with the class booth. Both E.A.T. and N.O.T. students will be putting together activities for students and other guests to participate in outside of the tournament matches. The DWMA will be open to the public for the Death Festival and classes will not be held, so of course, if any of you want to invite your families, they'd be very welcome to attend."
Maybe it was just Rei's imagination, but Maka's eyes lingered a little long on Ayame before she continued speaking.
"So, with that in mind," she said, "I'm going to turn it over to your class representative, so that you can start coming up with ideas for your booth. Clark?"
Clark stood up as Maka nodded at him, making his way down to the front of the room with a clipboard in his hand.
"How come four-eyes gets to be class rep?" Ayame grumbled from beside him.
"Because he won the vote," Rei said, keeping his voice to a whisper. "That's how democracy works."
"Hmph," Ayame said. "I still think I would have done a better job." But she quieted down and listened anyway, waiting for Clark to speak.
"Watch," Vayne said from beside Rei. "He's so going to go for a maid café."
Clark adjusted his glasses as he reached the front of the room, glancing down at the clipboard before looking up at the assembled students. He cleared his throat.
"Good morning," Clark said. "I've been hearing a few suggestions from some of you over the past few days, and there seems to be a large variety of ideas. Here's what I've been thinking, as a way to use most of these. Just a few days ago, some of my friends had an interesting time investigating a haunted house. I was thinking that, since the Death Festival is on Halloween, we could put together our own haunted house, with some of your ideas for the rooms."
Vayne paled. "Clark, how could you?" he said, but the outburst was drowned out by the murmurs of agreement in the front row. Excited whispers rose up from around the room, a few people turning around in their seats to talk excitedly with their friends.
"Can we be in costume?" someone asked Clark.
"We can absolutely be in costume," said Clark, writing 'costumes' down on the board under the heading 'Haunted House'. "I was thinking we could divide into teams, and have each team be in charge of a specific room.
"Can one of the rooms be a haunted laboratory?" one of the boys in front asked. "Jonas and I did a pretty creepy lab for our mission."
"Gav and I can take that one!" Jonas, a small boy in the front of the room said. "I've got an idea!"
"Alright," said Clark. "Jonas and Gavril, haunted lab. Anyone else?"
"Zombies!" someone shouted from the back of the room. "There has to be zombies!"
"Unfortunately, Sid-sensei doesn't approve of the racial stereotyping of zombies," said Clark. "I'm going to have to say no. But we can have vampires instead."
"Can we have a witch?" someone asked. "There absolutely has to be a witch."
"We can have a witch room," said Clark. "As long as we make clear that it's an evil witch."
"Ooh, ooh, demon warrior!" said Ayame, raising her hand. "There absolutely has to be a demon warrior!"
"Demon warrior, got it," said Clark, writing it on the board under 'witch'. "Anything else?"
"You said we were gonna do a maid café!" Vayne yelled in protest.
"Haunted maid café. Great idea, Vayne!" said Clark, grinning. "We can have it be the waiting room."
"Can we get the dojo for this?" a girl asked from near the front of the classroom. "It would be really cool. We could put up paneling to divide it into rooms. My family does theater, so I'm all over set design."
"Alright, Ophelia, set design," said Clark, writing that down. "Who wants to ask Mifune-sensei if we can use the dojo?"
"I'll take care of it!" said Cassie, raising her hand. "Mifune-sensei likes me."
"Okay, Cassie, Mifune duty," said Clark, writing that down. "Can I also put you in charge of ambiance?"
"One super scary haunted house coming up!" said Cassie, giving him two thumbs up.
Vayne let out a groan, slumping forward over the desk. Rei patted him on the shoulder as around and over them, people started shouting out ideas for rooms and creatures and volunteering for tasks. From the row behind them, Morgan ignored the commotion, continuing to write in her book.
It took Maka a full ten minutes to restore order to the classroom after the bell rang and she stepped up to take over for Soul Studies class, and even after class, planning for the haunted house went on. Rei heard Jonas and Gavril whispering about borrowing some things from Professor Stein's lab for the haunted laboratory and hoped for their sake that they weren't actually serious. It wasn't his place to stop them, though, so he let them go.
He told himself it wasn't just because he was curious to see what would happen.
It wasn't just their class. As soon as he stepped out into the hallway, he realized that the excitement was school-wide, E.A.T. and N.O.T. students alike talking about the festival and whether their parents would be able to make it and what their class would be doing and so forth.
And of course, everyone was talking about the tournament.
He and Ayame rounded the corner on their way to the cafeteria, passing by yet another group of N.O.T. students speculating on who would win this year. Ayame walked past them nonchalantly, but Rei saw the interest in her eyes, the way they moved to track their movements before looking back at the path ahead of her.
He knew what she was going to say before she did.
"I kinda want to enter the tournament," she said, as they neared the gaggle of students surrounding the mission board.
"Yeah?" Rei asked, glancing at her.
"Yeah," said Ayame, lowering her hands to her side from where they were clasped behind her neck. "My parents won it their first year, you know. And all the other years after that. They only missed out on their second year because the tournament was interrupted by some witch."
Rei thought about it for a moment. He still wasn't confident about fighting, but the tournament meant a lot to Ayame. Still, this wouldn't be anything like the spars in Mifune's class. There would be upperclassmen fighting, E.A.T. students who had more experience than the two of them.
Ayame didn't push him, but the look in her eye told him she really wanted this.
"You think we have a chance?" he asked.
"I think we've got more than a chance," said Ayame. "You've gotten a lot stronger, Rei. And we did awesome taking back that Witch Soul. People are still talking about it."
Uncertainty and nervousness coiled in the pit of his stomach. But Ayame wanted this.
Rei took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Ayame had been more than patient with him. Now it was his turn to stop holding her back.
"Alright," he said.
She blinked in surprise. "Alright?" she asked.
"If you want to enter, we should enter," Rei said. He offered her a smile. "If you think we have a chance, that is."
Ayame beamed at him, and it was enough to make him forget why he was so nervous about this in the first place. "Yes!" she said, jumping up in excitement. "We're going to be awesome!"
Rei shook his head at her, still smiling, and shouldered his way through the crowd to get to the sign-up sheet. As soon as he reached it, he hesitated, looking down at the names written on the clipboard pinned to the mission board. There were a lot of them, and almost all of them were from the older E.A.T. classes. Hardly any were from Class Moonless Night.
He'd expected this, but it was the last entry that gave him pause, the one right above the blank space where he had been about to put down his and Ayame's names.
Grayson Knight & Richard Sturm
"Rei?" Ayame asked, sidling up next to him. Her smile faltered when she realized what he was looking at, and her hand landed on his arm.
"We don't have to," she said. "If you're not ready."
Grayson and Richard. Their faces flashed through his mind again and he felt his knees lock up, his stomach turning to water the way it had when they confronted him in the hallway. He almost lowered the pen, but then he remembered the look on Ayame's face.
"No," he said. "No. We're doing this."
"You're sure?" Ayame asked.
"I'm sure," Rei said. "It's time."
Before he could change his mind, he swept the pen across the page, writing their names down quickly.
Rei Evans & Ayame Star
He dropped the pen, letting it hang next to the clipboard as he turned to face her. She stared at him, looking at him first in surprise, but then the surprise began to fade and she nodded at him, her eyes narrowing in determination. She slipped her hand down from his arm to his wrist, tightening her grip.
"We're going to win this, Rei," she said. "We can do it. You and me."
Rei nodded solemnly, meeting her eyes. "Yeah," he said, "We can."
"And," Ayame added, giving him a grin that was a touch shy of savage, "while we're at it, I'm going to help you beat those bullies straight into the dust."
"I'm really sorry, Ayame-chan," Tsubaki said from the earpiece of Ayame's phone. "We really wanted to come back and see you fight in the tournament, but it looks like things here are more complicated than we thought. One second—." Her voice became muffled, as though she had put her hand over the mouthpiece and was now leaning away. "—Bright Star, don't climb the bookcases, sweetie—anyway, Ayame-chan, we really are very sorry, but we'll see you before Christmas, alright?"
"Yeah, it's fine," said Ayame, from her seat on one of the large boxes that had been piled into the dojo. Rei shot her a look at the tone of her voice, but she waved him off impatiently, going back to her conversation. "I get it. Things are busy."
"I'm sorry again, Ayame-chan," Tsubaki said, sounding genuinely sad. "I'm glad to hear that you're doing well though. We're very proud of you."
"Thanks," Ayame said. "And don't worry about it, Mom. I know how it is."
"Maka-chan says she'll record all of your fights," Tsubaki said. "And your father says to do your best."
"That's not what I said!" said Black Star from the background. "I said to tell her to kick all their punk asses!"
"Black Star—," Tsubaki began, covering the phone again.
Ayame smiled in spite of herself. "Tell Dad they won't know what hit them," she said.
"I'll tell him," Tsubaki promised, sounding like she was smiling as well. "Ayame-chan, you take care of yourself, alright? Tell Rei-kun that I said hi."
"I will," Ayame promised, glancing at Rei. "See you soon, Mom."
"See you soon," Tsubaki echoed.
Ayame hung up, slipping her phone into the back pocket of her shorts. She looked up at Rei.
"Well?" Rei asked.
"My parents can't come," Ayame said. "Too busy. Mom says hi though."
Rei frowned at her. "Are you alright with that?" he asked.
"Yeah," Ayame said, sighing. "I mean, I'm a little bummed, but it was always a long shot. We're just gonna have to be brilliant without them."
She stretched, then rocked backwards and leaped to her feet, placing a hand on Rei's shoulder.
"Come on," she said. "Let's get to making a scary haunted house."
In the days since the haunted house idea had first been conceived, the dojo had been transformed, drop cloth lining the polished wooden floors as entire areas began to get sectioned off into separate rooms. Being entrants in the tournament meant that Rei and Ayame were technically exempt from helping with the class's preparations, but since Clark and Vayne were doing a lot of the work and since they had some time on their hands and not much else to do, they still came over and helped out when they could anyway.
She followed Rei over to where Vayne and Morgan were painting set pieces, Cassie humming from where she was seated over them on a box, her headphones on. She had her laptop on her lap and was typing away at something Ayame couldn't see. Vayne had a decidedly unhappy look on his face as he and Morgan got to work, transforming a large board into a foreboding stone wall.
"Stupid Clark," Vayne muttered under his breath. "Stupid haunted house."
"Aw, come on, Vayne, it can't be that bad," said Ayame with a grin, dropping down into a crouch next to him. "Come on. Hand me a paintbrush."
"You missed a spot," Morgan said, pointing at something next to Vayne's paintbrush.
"Yeah, yeah," Vayne muttered, dipping his brush in gray paint and running it over the spot that Morgan had noted. "Should have just done the stupid tourney."
"No, you shouldn't have," said Ayame, grinning as she flopped down into a seated position on the floor. "I'm entering, remember. I'd really hate to have to kick your face in."
"Not in the mood, Ayame," Vayne said with a scowl, dipping his brush back into the gray paint and painting with a fury. "Besides, it would be Clark's stupid face. Serves him right. Stupid Clark."
"Come on, man, you know more insults than that," said Rei, settling down next to Morgan. He reached for a fresh section of paneling, moving it to the side so that he and Ayame could paint.
"I do," Vayne said, still muttering angrily under his breath. "But Mifune-sensei doesn't like it when we use those words in the dojo."
"Yikes, someone's pissed," said Ayame with a grin. "Besides, Mifune-sensei isn't even here."
"Hello, Ayame," said a voice from behind her.
Ayame went rigid, nearly dropping her paint brush. Morgan let out a sound that she could have sworn was a snicker, turning her head away from Ayame.
"Mifune-sensei," Ayame said, tilting her head back and giving the imposing teacher a nervous grin. "Hello. You're looking great today, sensei. Are you doing something different with your hair?"
"Spare me the flattery," Mifune said, walking past her. "Cassandra?"
Cassie tugged her headphones off of her ears, looking up. "Yes, teach?"
"Make sure no paint gets on the floor."
"You got it, teach," said Cassie, giving Mifune a smile and a thumbs up. Mifune nodded, walking away.
As soon as he was gone, Ayame turned to Cassie, who was in the process of putting her headphones back on. "You and Mifune-sensei seem to get along pretty well," she said. "How'd that happen?"
"He helped me with some stuff before I became a student at the DWMA," said Cassie, smiling. "It's kind of a long story." Before Ayame could ask her more, Cassie tugged her headphones up over her ears and returned to typing away at her laptop.
Ayame frowned, opening her mouth to ask her question louder, but before she could a loud shout sounded from the middle of the dojo, followed by a splash. She looked up at the same time as Morgan and Vayne did, seeing Clark standing in a puddle of red, red paint covering him from head to foot and pooling in the tarp beneath his feet.
Rhythm stood in front of him, a scowl on her face and an empty bucket of red paint in her hand. As Clark spluttered at her, she tossed the can onto the ground with a decisive thunk, turning on heel and walking away.
"Oh boy," Rei said.
Ayame whistled. "Strike two for loverboy."
"I'm sure it's been more than two," said Morgan.
"Dammit," Vayne said, getting up. He picked up a wash cloth and stalked over to Clark angrily, grabbing him by his vest and turning him to face him. Cassie blinked in interest, watching the scene from over her laptop with her headphones still on. "Could you just, maybe, not make an enemy out of every girl in the class?"
"It's not my fault," Clark whined. "I was just complimenting her on what a good job she did with the painting."
"Yeah, yeah," said Vayne, yanking Clark's glasses off and scrubbing roughly at the red paint on his face. "What about Cassie, huh? Were you just messing around?"
"Ow—watch it," said Clark, wincing. "And of course my heart belongs to Cassandra, but she clearly isn't ready to return my feelings. I'm not the sort of crass animal that would harass a girl who doesn't show any interest."
"Oh, really?" asked Vayne. "Because you know, pretty damn sure Rhythm shot you down on the first day of class."
"That was because she didn't know me yet," said Clark.
"Yeah, yeah," Vayne said. "Shut up and close your eyes. Should have just let her blind you…You know, here's an idea. How about you tell Cassie how you feel when she can actually hear you?"
"Hey…" said Cassie, tugging one of the earpieces off. "Is it just me, or are Clark and Vayne kinda…you know? Shippy?"
"Seriously?!" Ayame asked, turning towards Cassie. "That's what you're getting out of this?"
"Shippy?" Rei asked, looking back at Cassie with a frown. "What, like a boat?"
"Congratulations," Ayame said in frustration, spreading her hands out at both of them. "I pronounce you the king and queen of 'totally missing the point'."
"What point am I missing, Ayame dear?" Cassie asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"Yeah, Ayame, what is she talking about?" asked Rei.
"You," said Ayame, pointing at Cassie, "I don't even know where to start, and you," She pointed at Rei. "You really don't want to know."
"She thinks that Clark would be romantically interested in Vayne," Morgan explained in a deadpan voice, continuing to paint. "instead of taking note of his actual interest in her."
Rei coughed and spluttered, nearly falling over. "What? Vayne? Seriously?!"
Ayame looked at Cassie, but as usual, she had missed the last part of Morgan's sentence and was now typing furiously away at her screen, her headphones up.
"There she goes again!" Ayame said, gesturing at Cassie. She let out a sigh and collapsed on the ground, closing her eyes. "Ugh, I can't take it."
"Vayne?" Rei asked again, still incredulous.
Morgan shrugged, continuing to paint.
It had taken a while for things to calm down after that, and for Rei to accept that, yes, someone could be that oblivious. Thankfully, they'd managed to compose themselves before Vayne came back to start painting again. Rei didn't even want to imagine how Vayne would react if he knew what Cassie was suggesting, but probably not well.
He and Ayame painted a few more panels together before he stood up and excused himself, stepping outside to get a glass of water and some air.
It was almost sunset by now, but despite that, the school wasn't empty, both E.A.T. and N.O.T. students working hard on their respective booths. Rei passed a pair of girls dressed in mismatched school uniforms and carrying a table between them, rounding the corner towards the drinking fountain.
"Well," said a voice from beside him. "Look who showed up. It's the Evans kid."
Rei froze, looking to his right. Grayson and Richard were leaning against the wall near the entrance to their classroom, accompanied by another two members of their entourage, a lean dark-haired meister girl named Xiaoying and her weapon, a boy named Seth.
"Heard you joined the tournament, Evans," Grayson said, grinning at him. "Someone's getting confident."
"One successful mission, and you think you own the school," said Richard, his arms folded. "Must be nice, hmm?"
He forced himself to take in a breath, forced himself to continue to move, walking towards the drinking fountain down the hall. "I'm not here to talk to you," he said.
"Ooh," said Grayson, exchanging smirks with Xiaoying and Seth. "Listen to him. It's like he's forgotten who's won two years in a row."
"Just goes to show you," said Seth, "All you need to get confidence is to find yourself a weapon that's stronger than you."
Rei clenched his fists tightly, forcing himself to walk away. He told himself that it wasn't because he was scared, that Richard, Grayson and the others would get theirs in the tournament, but he didn't quite believe it.
He drank water, but it soured his stomach, and he took the long way around to get back to the dojo.
They were laughing and talking when he got back, Clark having changed into his gym shirt to help them paint. Rei tried to walk into the room like nothing was wrong, but Ayame noticed his expression immediately, sitting back on her heels and turning towards him. The smile fell away from her face, replaced by a concerned frown as the other four quieted down as well.
"Rei?" Ayame asked. "Did something happen?"
He could feel their eyes on him, could see the concern written all over Ayame's face.
"No," he heard himself say, stepping forward. "Everything's fine."
Ayame frowned, but let her move past him, picking his paintbrush up again. The other four hesitantly returned to their conversation.
He made his way back to the group, settling down next to Ayame. She frowned at him, and before he could say anything, reached up, squeezing his shoulder.
"Don't let them get to you," she said, going back to painting.
"Yeah," Rei said softly, lowering his voice so that only she could hear it. He dipped his brush in paint. "I won't."
A/N: Yes, Angela's familiar is named after Pascal the chameleon from the Disney Princess movie Tangled. Thought it would be cute.
No, Vayne x Clark is not happening. But Cassie thinks it is.
Omake
Franken Stein's Laboratory/Residence
"Have fun, children!" Marie said from the door, smiling at Jonas and Gavril as the two boys pulled a hand cart loaded with several boxes down the road. "Be careful."
"We will, Marie-sensei!" Jonas promised, raising his hand in a wave as they pulled the cart down the bumpy road.
Marie smiled, stepping back into the lab and closing the door. She walked into the space that served as Stein's lab and her sitting room, setting a beaker of coffee to heat over a Bunsen burner and beginning to tidy up. The new first years in Class Moonless Night were so cute. They reminded her of Shelley when she had been that age.
The door to the house opened and closed again.
"I'm back," Stein said, from the doorway.
"Welcome home," Marie said, leaning over the partition between the lab and the rest of the house to greet him. "I'm making tea."
Stein hummed in response, walking past her and staring intently at a sheet of paper in his hand. She glanced over, recognizing Shelley's handwriting. Marie smiled and went back to what she was doing, taking out the sugar and cream.
Stein stopped in the center of the lab, reaching out for something with one hand while continuing to read. The hand groped blindly in the empty air for a minute before Stein paused, straightening up and lowering the sheet of paper. He looked around, his eyes sweeping from one side of the now-empty lab to the other.
"Marie," he said after a moment, his voice soft. "Where are all my things?"
"Oh, I lent them to Jonas and Gavril from Class Moonless Night," Marie said. "They said they were putting on a haunted house."
"You did what?!" Stein asked loudly, turning towards her.
X
Elsewhere in Death City, Jonas and Gavril picked up speed as they heard Stein's shout, both of them pale as they disappeared into the streets.
