23. Resigned Fenugreek and Blood Orange

Fourteen

It was grotesquely intriguing how out of place the red looked on the bathroom's white floors and sinks. It dotted the tiles and porcelain like constellations depicting murder. A scene from a horror movie is what many would say, although only two had been the ones to see the display of crimson.

Stein looked around him, still fascinated by all the red, but it didn't look as beautiful as it had a couple of minutes ago. Very slowly, the loveliness of it was fading away and being replaced by the blunt horror of reality and as it did, Stein's eyes grew a little wider.

The young teen sat on the bathroom floor, the bottoms of his white pants growing a little darker as they soaked up small beads of blood. He rubbed his eyes, noticed the scalpel still clutched tightly in his slender fingers and hastily released it, listening to it ring as it struck the cold floor.

On the ground before him lay the other half of his nightmare. His classmate was on their side with their hands gripping their face in agony. Red seeped between their fingers, adding to the pools on the floor and helping Stein's alarm grow rapidly.

Very slowly, the silver haired teen reached a hand towards his classmate, inquiring softly, "Tez…?"

The dark haired teen hesitantly pulled his left hand from his face, peering at Stein through black bangs that had grown damp from his own blood. He blinked and slowly pulled himself into a sitting position without saying a word, keeping his right hand across most of his face.

Stein could remember enough to know what his classmate's face probably looked like. He remembered being alone in the boy's restroom, fiddling with a scalpel while standing in front of one of the sinks. He should've been in class but had been entertaining the idea of slicing off one of his own fingers just to see how efficiently he could reattach it with the items he had on hand. The door opened a few seconds later and Tezca Tlipoca had walked in. He'd greeted Stein, stepped over to the sink across from the motionless teen, and proceeded with washing hands, muttering something about an experiment in their Science of Soul's class that hadn't gone well. Apparently having tomato sauce as a variable in the experiment and having a few hyper students in your group wasn't a good combination.

Stein, still twirling the silver blade in his fingers, had watched with some fascination as the thick tomato sauce dripped into the sink, turning the glass a light maroon in some places. It had been at that moment Stein lunged for the other boy, whipping his scalpel to the side before lashing it across Tezca's face, creating a huge gash in the teen's left temple. Tezca had cried out, holding his head and backing away, and Stein advanced again, this time catching the weapon right beneath his right eye that was wide with terror.

This had gone on for a few seconds, but to Stein, it'd felt like hours. The high he usually got in the middle of a battle or just thinking about dissection took over his brain as he slashed at his classmate again and again. He was one of the best fighters in the DWMA, and Tezca was good as well, but he was only raising his arms in defense and couldn't get in a counter attack.

When he'd hit the floor, his hands went to his face, stinging from the multiple gashes in his skin. He'd grit his teeth, refusing to scream out, fearing someone would run in and the situation would become worse. So he'd lay there, holding his head, face warm from the streams of crimson running down his skin and collecting in pools on the tiles below. Through his left eye he'd watched Stein, motionless where he stood, still gripping his scalpel and breathing hard from the sudden act of insanity. Through his right eye, he'd only seen red and after a few minutes, it went black.

Now sitting upright, Tezca gazed steadily at Stein, not saying anything as the teen in front of him grew more agitated by the second. Finally, he sighed, "I'm alright, Stein."

Stein jerked back in surprise to hear his classmate's voice before his eyes narrowed and he demanded incredulously, "You're alright? Tez, there is no way you're just alright."

"I'm fine, okay?" Tezca insisted, rising to his feet and pulling a couple sheets from the roll of paper towels above the sink. Pressing them firmly to his skin, he inhaled through his teeth as a stinging burn took over his face.

Stein approached the other teen slowly, hesitantly grabbing more paper towels and wetting them down. "What are you going to say?" he inquired, handing the damp wad over to his friend who gratefully accepted it.

The dark haired teen said nothing, only gave a quick shrug and began wiping streams of blood from his chin, nose, and temple. "Not much, I guess. Death has already spoken to you countless times about your hobbies, and he even said if things went too far…"

Stein's eyes widened momentarily as he recalled the conversation with Death before he willed himself to calm down, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. "Tez, I've never hurt anyone close to me this bad before. Sure, I've nicked people a few times, but I'm always joking around, and I don't mean for them to get seriously injured. Even Spirit has never gotten his face cut up. Only thugs who deserved it ever received anything like this, but even then, Spirit was always there to make sure I never went too far."

Tezca tossed the bloody mass of towels into the garbage and collected more, carefully going over every cut. He didn't mention to his friend there were fourteen in all, and he tried not to dwell on the number for very long either.

"What are you going to tell Death, Tezca?" Stein demanded, watching his friend with intent eyes. "Whatever he says, I'll take it. This was my doing, after all."

Tezca frowned at their reflections in the mirror, one grim and crimson, the other calm and accepting. With a slow exhale, he turned to the meister and murmured, "In the basement, turn right the first hallway you come to and go five doors down. Black cabinet towards the end of the room. Grab what's in there and come back."

Stein looked bewildered at first but quickly retreated from the bathroom as Tezca clapped his hands abruptly and motioned to the door with a frantic wave. As the teen disappeared, the Demon Mirror leaned against the sink, watching tiny droplets of red appear on the golden drain. He felt sick to his stomach, but the more he thought about it, the more he decided the nausea simply accompanied the thought of what would happen to Stein if he opened his mouth and relayed the entire story to someone. Death always reminded Stein that his little bouts of insanity could seriously injure someone, maybe even kill them.

Blinking wearily at the face staring back at him in the mirror, Tezca raised a finger and traced along the longest gash stretching from his left jaw to his right temple. It ran through his right eye, and he could no longer see out of it. He'd clean up all the wounds better when he had the time. For now, he only had to hide them.

Footsteps near the bathroom's entrance made him rigid with fear as he contemplated what would happen it another student walked in. However, much to his relief, it was only Stein carrying what the demon weapon had asked for.

With a look of apprehension, Stein passed the object to Tezca who confirmed his suspicions by pulling the gawdy bear mask over his head.

"There. Nothing to worry about now," Tezca's muffled voice exclaimed from within the hollowed out head.

"Tezca, you can't just hide your face. People will ask about it," Stein argued. "If you hide any of this, Death will punish you as well."

"So we won't get punished," Tezca stated firmly, repositioning the mask more securely on his head. "We won't tell Death or anyone else, alright?"

Stein rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger before sighing, "I should clean all this up. You head back to class."

With a shrug, Tezca retrieved a handful of towels and wet them before getting to work sponging all the blood off the floor. "It's my blood, so I might as well help out."

"Tez, you don't have to help. You don't have to do any of this."

"Sure I do," Tezca answered, sending the ball of paper into the garbage with a flick of his wrist. "We're classmates and comrades, and I consider us friends."

Stein looked back at the other teen from where he was scrubbing crimson off the wall. The term 'friends' never came to mind when he considered his classmate. Tezca enjoyed talking to everyone, making jokes and telling interesting stories, but whether all those people considered Tezca a friend of not, Stein wasn't sure.

"I guess even Death would think I have to do this," Tezca added, smiling up at Stein through his mask.

"How do you figure that?"

"Death has to keep track of the Order of the world, has to make sure everything is in perfect balance. You slice up my face, I help you clean up the mess and hide all evidence it ever happened, even if that means keeping this mask on for the rest of my life."

Stein snorted, finishing up a long streak of red on the smooth wall. "I don't think the Order would really go that way. I think it would be more evened out if I was punished for my actions."

"I'll stick around as a reminder of what you did." Tezca rose to his feet and moved to the sinks to wash the blood from his hands. "Will that be enough punishment for you?"

Stein didn't say anything, joining his classmate at the sinks to wash his own hands and glancing over, narrowing his eyes when he saw a few streaks of blood drip down from beneath the mask. "I guess those were deeper than I thought. We need to get you to the nurse's office."

Tezca laughed quietly, large, fake eyes turning to Stein. "I don't think we'll be able to explain this one."

"I'll stitch it up myself. We'll make sure she's not around, how's that?" Stein inquired, retrieving the scalpel from off the floor and sliding it into the pocket of his coat.

Tezca grabbed a fistful of towels, wiping his neck and cramming them firmly under the edge of the mask. "No arguments here."

The two checked the hallway, thankful for the lack of people seeing as class was still in session. Not spotting anyone, they both began their hasty journey down the hall towards the dispensary.

"Hopefully she won't be there," Tezca murmured as they approached the closed door of their destination.

Stein sent a sideways look at his classmate. "You're not going to let me tell anyone what I did, are you?" he inquired in defeat.

Tezca slowly opened the door. "I really don't think I will."

Stein released a sigh and looked up at the bear head. "Fine, then. I won't let anyone know."

"Great, I won't either. You're welcome."

The silver haired meister followed his classmate into the room. "Yeah. Thanks."

-/-\-|-/-\-

A/N: I realized I hadn't done a one-shot with Stein yet, so I wrote that one up. Hope you enjoyed it. ^^

Update: After talking to AutumnMobile12, she explained there was quite a bit of blood, so they had to do something about it. I ended up changing the ending a bit. Who better to stitch up someone than Stein?