A/N: Two chapters in a single month? Where is this coming from? Anyways, this chapter may have spoilers for Soul Eater's manga, mainly chapters 71 through 81. Thought I should mention that.

36. A Meddling Tangerine and Chia

Irregular Beating

He listens to the irregular beating with a content smile. Every time he hears the fist make its connection, the receiver of the brutal attack lets a stifled cry slip between gritted teeth. Again and again, like a sadistic drum beat, the noise continues, and he listens with his sly little smile.

Justin Law pulls his earbuds away from his head, replacing the high-pitched tune he'd been enjoying with Gopher's enraged shouts and the reaper's grunts of pain. He closes his eyes, ignoring Giriko as the other man walks past, commenting on his taste in music. He is referring to the torture going on in the next room, but Justin doesn't answer. He has nothing to say to the demonic chainsaw and prefers not to confirm the man's observations, even if they are true. After all, he doesn't like the man with the jagged teeth and crude smile.

Gopher's wrath ends quicker than Justin expects, much to the priest's disappointment. He steps aside as the metal door is flung open and the fuming tool exits the room, bloodied fists trembling. Justin wonders if the tool is seething or if he is suddenly terrified that Noah will discover the abused part of his collection. Either way, the tool's unease adds a little humor to the situation.

"What are you smiling at, you crooked liar?" Gopher's icy tone cuts through the silence.

Justin opens his eyes, gazing back at the artificial being who is wiping blood onto his dark pants. The tool is glaring at him defiantly, an incompetent brat lacking all respect for his elders.

"At the foolish device so bold to question my amusement," Justin responds, smile growing a fraction.

Gopher's eye twitches and his mouth twists into the usual pout, but he doesn't respond. Instead, he examines a bruised forefinger and, with a surprising amount of delicacy, snaps a joint back into place. He does his best not to cringe, to show weakness before the smirking priest, but Justin can see the bead of sweat that rolls past the tool's fidgeting eye.

"Why are you beating Noah's collection?" Justin inquires, watching in satisfaction as Gopher goes rigid. "What if he were to discover the bruises and cuts?"

"He won't," Gopher answers firmly. "I didn't touch the shinigami's face and his kind heal so damn fast, it wouldn't matter if I severed his hand at the wrist."

"Not that one," Justin says, closing his eyes once more. "Without Brew, that child is almost defenseless. He isn't yet old enough to heal so quickly. To cut off a hand would be a stupid act committed by a stupid tool."

Gopher bristles angrily, turning on the priest with cold eyes while hissing, "I am not a stupid tool! I was created by Noah-sama to forever serve him! I am loyal! I am above you since I would never betray my master!"

Justin returns his left earbud to its rightful place and allows the music to trickle back into his mind. On his other side, Gopher snorts in irritation and mutters darkly under his breath. His words are vague, but they pull Justin's eyes open and cause his hand to falter in reaching for his second earbud.

"What?" the priest murmurs, turning to Gopher whose eyes have gone wide. Obviously, the tool hadn't intended for Justin to hear the last remark, and now he's stammering nervously.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't quite catch the last part," Justin says, extending a hand and resting it atop Gopher's shaking head. His fingers press uncomfortably into the tool's skull, frightening the soul further.

"I said—"

"Speak up, stupid tool."

"I was just saying you were probably friends with him," Gopher forces out in a strained breath, stumbling back as Justin releases him. "You were friends with that damn shinigami and you turned your back on him."

You were probably friends with him.

Justin narrows his cold stare, thinking of the shinigami trapped in the room next door. So the incompetent machine before him thinks he'd once been close to Lord Death and his tedious offspring? What an amusing idea.

You turned your back on him.

"Interestingly enough," Justin begins, his pleasant grin returning, "I don't believe it is considered betrayal when the two sides were never close."

"It's just the way he reacts if he happens to see you," Gopher explains hesitantly. "He appears hostile, but there is something else about his face that bothers me. There is something he remembers, something he tries not to show because he's too stubborn."

White.

Justin blinks at the sudden, blinding light and the image disappears.

"I suppose you find the notion ridiculous," Gopher continues, folding his arms over his chest with a low sigh. "The heartless weapon being friends with the heartless shinigami... I thought it seemed accurate."

Flakes of snow and a cold breeze.

The priest takes a step back, hitting his shoulders against the brick wall behind him.

"What?" Gopher's eyes are bewildered at first but they soon fill with malicious glee. "Oh? Is the stupid tool correct?"

"So what does the young shinigami think?"

His own words echo throughout his mind, battering Gopher's triumphant taunts, filling the priest with an unwanted nostalgia. He remembers laughing at the child of Lord Death when the boy asks if snow can dye his hair white. He remembers the disappointment when he tells the child, no, probably not.

Justin lashes out, driving his knuckles into Gopher's palms as the tool frantically raises his hands in defense. He tells himself it's pointless, that Gopher is artificial, and therefore his observations and theories are just as fake. They're the phony delusions of a phony creature thought up by the greedy bastard Noah.

Cold. His fingers are cold from the snowball he rolls between them.

Gopher retreats, rubbing a sore palm and keeping one eye on Justin, preparing for the next attack.

"Did you get your fill of snow for the day, Little Death?"

Justin closes his eyes, forcing the memory aside and willing the drumming to stop. Something is hammering in his chest, that one tiresome organ that pumps life through him. It shouldn't be crashing about so wildly. It maintains an unsteady beat, a haphazard performance of guilt and reminisce.

"I did. Thanks for coming with me outside and helping me straighten up the disgraceful snowman."

On and on, his heart pounds and his chest aches, but he casts the forgotten time aside. He blots out the smiles of the young shinigami and stains the once beautiful canvas of snow. He tears the memory in two and then in three, obliterating the melancholic photograph and its damning effect on his conscious.

Gopher has left Justin to his internal battle, not wanting to risk another assault. The hallway is empty, and the only sound in Justin's ears belongs to his slowing heartbeat, victorious against the madness within his mind. Exhausted, it wearily thumps, strained from the unexpected wave of sickening memories.

Justin sighs.

He listens to the irregular beating with an icy smile.

-/-\-|-/-\-

A/N: I didn't know I'd enjoy writing that one as much as I did... I hope everyone else enjoyed it, too. As you all probably noticed, this chapter ties back to chapter 19: Captivate Olives and La Kama. (Oh, so long ago!) This chapter was originally going to focus on what Justin and Gopher thought of Kid, but it ended up being Gopher turning Justin into a sad puddle of guilt. Well, it was fun.