Hey, next chapter, huzza~ C: I plan to actually have a lot of chapters on this one, 'cause that'd be cool. And SteinxMarie is actually pretty easy to write. Don't forget to tell me your favorite pairings, ja. Thank you for the reviews! w I know my medical knowledge isn't great at all, but I tried. ; c ;

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Stein had sewn up Marie's hand, just like he had promised the day before. It only required three stitches and he informed her of the potential pain that came along with it. Even after the wound had completely healed and the stitches were removed, there was still a chance of some bizarre chronic pain.

Marie knew the risk, but was a little surprised had how gentle Stein was. "I knew you cut things apart, but I didn't know you could put them back together perfectly." Stein had given her a few painkillers and a few shots in her left hand so that it would be numb. Her hand was very loose and floppy, and Marie couldn't control it at all. She was a little alarmed at first, but Stein reassured her it'd wear off in a couple of hours.

Marie had returned home from teaching at Shibusen, it was early evening, and the sun had already set. She heaved sigh as she closed the door behind her, "I'm tired!" There wasn't any reply, but she wasn't necessarily expecting any. She wandered past a few relatively dark hallways and into Stein's office. "Stein?" She called, not seeming him around anywhere. "Stein?" She called again, becoming increasingly worried.

One of the reasons he was always cooped up in doors these days was because he was placed under house arrest. Marie hoped he hadn't left. Maybe he was just in a farther part of the rather large estate, and couldn't hear her calling?

"Stein!"

Loud footsteps quickly echoed in the same hallway that Marie had come from, almost sounding like the speed of someone running. "Stein?" She mumbled, as though asking if that was him. The booming echoes continued until she saw a familiar white lab coat littered with black stitches swoop into the room. His facial expression was tense, and he looked scared, but managed to keep his mouth shut. "Marie," He boomed aggressively, "Show me your left hand."

"W—wha…Why? It's healing perfectly. I—"

"Show it to me."

"But…But why—"

"Show it to me!" He demanded, screaming right at her.

Rather reluctantly, she did so, reaching out and turned over her hand, so the palm was facing upwards. She saw the diagonal slice through her hand, and saw its immensely slow progress at healing. The stitches were the only thing keeping the fresh wound from reopening. He stared at it expectantly, holding her fingertips with his right hand, bending her fingers back to see her entire hand. She winced a little in pain, her hand was still sore.

"What's wrong with it…Stein?" Marie asked gingerly, not really knowing if she wanted to hear what Stein had to say or not. "What's wrong with my hand?"

As if on cue, Marie's wounded hand started to burn, and involuntarily, she started to scream in pain, though there was no visible reason as to why. Stein kept a firm grip on her fingertips, and she couldn't tear away. "It hurts!" She cried, trying her best to keep from crying. "Make it stop!"

Stein did nothing to help her. He just watched her hand. The stitches that he had created started to break, and Marie's newly joined flesh started to tear apart. It opened larger than the original wound was, and now all of her tendons and muscles in her left palm were completely visible. Marie's screams were splitting Stein's ears, but after a while, he tuned them out. It was as though he didn't think of her as a person he knew, just of a hand that started to reject the skin surrounding it. It curled inside out and started to roll away like a caterpillar.

Now the flesh at her wrist started to peel away. "Stein! Stein! Help me!" She wailed, his grip tightened the more she screamed. "S—Stein! My fingers are breaking, stop!"

The snapping and cracking sounds that Marie had foretold had already happened, and Stein's reach had extended to her forearm. He held her in place, so she couldn't flail anymore. All of the skin on her entire left hand had already peeled away; it had fallen to the floor in some dejected heap, looking like a peach and red colored banana skin. Marie stopped screaming, her voice totally soundless. She stopped flailing; only shaking uncontrollably.

Never before had she been able to count all of the metacarpals in her hand. Such small, tiny bones that all functioned as a team to create a working finger. All five fingers worked together in unison to create a functional hand. In that moment, she shared the same interest as Stein did. Marie could move her hand freely now, moving around the small white bones, and observed the fleshy red tissues that enabled her to flex her fingers. It was still bleeding, but not very much. Only a little trickle. Like a little red stream, trailing from her wrist down to her arm and to her elbow.

She stretched out her hand fully, examining the blood vessels clearly. Chunk. What was that? She noticed that one of her fingers was missing something. Her dark amber eyes gently floated down. "Oh," She said softly, "I lost a little bone." She smiled manically, having the same sort of laughter that Stein possessed in his fits of insanity.

There were more creaking and squelchy sounds as more little clumps of white and red dropped on the concrete floorings below, and eventually left nothing more than the rest of her left arm, minus her entire hand. Nothing from below her wrist. Nothing at all. Air. She looked up at Stein, her eyes watering. Translucent blue tears fell slowly from her eyes and gently outlined her slightly rounded face. "Stein, I'm missing a hand."

"Gah!" Stein breathed loudly, panting heavily, his heart feeling like a motor in his chest. He was shaking hysterically and he buried his face in his hands. He was sweaty, and was crying lightly. He felt hot and disgusting. Like he was wrapped up in some sort of sticky film—like a frog.

"Stein!" Marie called, rushing towards him, wearing a white cotton robe. "Stein, what's wrong?" She asked him, lifting up his head.

"M…M—Marie!" He called back, his voice choking up. His arms reached out to her and he scooped her up into his embrace, holding the back of her head with one hand, and her torso with the other. "Marie…" He whispered softly, hints of recent crying still traceable in his weakened voice.

Marie felt worried. What had he dreamt about that made him start screaming? What was it that made him cry? The way he was holding her so close to his bare chest made her assume it must have been about her. Or at least she hoped so. In reassurance, Marie's arms soon slid around Stein's torso. He felt warm to the touch. She wondered if he had a fever or something. It was possible.

"Stein," she whispered softly, "what happened?"

"I stitched up your left hand like I said I would, but for some reason it broke apart." His rough breathing started to calm down, and eventually, everything he said was coherent. "Your skin started to peel away, and then your hand started to fall apart. All of the little bones were on the floor. I didn't help you." He buried his face in her hair. "I didn't help you at all. I just broke off your fingertips. It's my fault you're missing a hand, Marie!"

Marie sighed inwardly. His dreams must be completely real to him. "I didn't lose a hand, Stein." She whispered back, "Do you want proof?"

Stein took one hand and traced a line with a fingertip from her left shoulder to her left hand. It was there, it was real. Real flesh, real blood, real bones. It was warm, and soft. Her hand closed on his. She smiled gently and whispered in his ear, "See? It's still there."

Stein heaved a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad. I didn't want to hurt you. It was horrible. I couldn't help you…I just…I just stood there and watched you writhe about in pain."

"That was just a bad dream, Stein. None of that happened." She whispered softly, her voice weak because she was still groggy. "You stitched up my hand like you said, and it's healing. Nothing's wrong with it at all."

Stein paused, changing subjects completely. "Sleep with me." He demanded, his voice firm and unyielding.

"W—what?" Marie squeaked, not tired enough to catch that line.

"I need you here." Stein replied. "I need you. I feel normal when you're around."

Marie agreed, seeing as how Stein wouldn't take no for an answer. He was like a spoiled child, but Marie was quite a pushover when it came to people she liked. She got more comfortable in his rather spacious bed, pulling up whatever blankets where were and pulled them over her legs and torso.

Marie had never noticed, but apparently he slept shirtless. Maybe he had just adapted to the frequent 'nightmares' and just decided that he'd feel better without a sweaty shirt clinging to him when he woke up in the middle of the night. He placed an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, his face resting awfully close to hers, like he was snuggling a teddy bear.

Marie was too tired and too concerned about Stein to freak out. This closeness probably wouldn't last very long, but she liked it. Stein did have an air about superior intelligence when he wore his glasses, but without them, he looked like a strong leader. She examined his profile clearly as she lie next to him, his breathing louder than her own.

That circular scar on his face. His lovely olive colored eyes. His messy grey hair. As if to wake her out of her stare, Stein spoke softly, "I'm not asleep, you know."

Marie was surprised. She thought he had fallen asleep quickly, just like that.

"I can feel your eyes."

"Sorry, I ju—"

"Don't be." He smiled lightly, though his eyes were still closed. "You don't have to apologize to me."

Marie was a little speechless. Stein had never acted this way with anybody. When she had first asked him out a little over a decade ago, he had said, "I am incapable of love. You wouldn't want me anyway. You can find someone much better than me."

But she never really did. She never really found someone quite like him. That wasn't to say she was solely after him. She did have other caring boyfriends as she grew older. A few were a little pigheaded, and on one unspeakable occasion, her 'boyfriend' had warped into a sex fiend. He nearly tried to rape her, but she wasn't a Death Scythe for nothing.

She thought she'd turn over a new leaf when she moved to Australia, but life over there wasn't as interesting as she had hoped. She craved the emotions she never got to see out of Stein. Now she finally saw them. Strangely, it was only around the awakening of the Kishin. But it had been years before they had last seen each other. Maybe it was his own feelings that had changed over time, and not because of the Kishin. She wanted to believe that the reason he was holding her so closely was on his own accord and not his own delusions.

"Unlike me, you actually need sleep." Stein said, gently kissing her forehead. "You've got to teach in the morning. It's a Friday." He smirked lightly.

"Oh, yes," Marie muffled a giggle, "I nearly forgot about that."

"You have to take my place, for now at least." He said, brushing a stray golden lock of hair out of her face. "You're taking up residence in my house now, so you have to do some work too, or I'll consider you a freeloader." He joked.

"A freeloader?" Marie smiled in protest, "We both need sleep."

It was a few hours into the school day, and Marie had just popped into the one of the bathrooms to touch up her makeup. There was a small break for teachers as students went off to lunch. As she entered through the double doors, she saw another woman hovering over the sink and held a pair of thick rimmed black glasses. Her dark blue eyes looked right, almost suspicious of the other body in the restroom. "Oh, it's just you Marie." She said calmly, relaxing.

"Oh, hi, Yumi. I haven't seen you around here lately…" Marie walked closer to the gold gilded mirrors and pulled out a stick of eyeliner from a small handbag she took to class. Asuza was in here to clear her glasses. The Asian woman had in her hand a soft piece of white fabric that she was using to rub her glasses clean. She seemed to be doing a thorough job of it too.

"Shinigami-Sama's ordered me to use my eyes to try to scout out Arachne's castle. It's slow work, but we're getting closer." Azusa was of course talking about her special insight. She was a bit more on the serious side, and liked to get the tasks applied to her done quickly and properly.

Marie smiled, already finished outlining the only eye not covered by an eye patch and slipped its lid back on, now reaching for a tube of lotion. "That's good. Medusa's still locked up, so once Arachne's been stopped and the Kishin has been caught, we'll have nothing to worry about."

"Yes," Asuza replied, slipping her glasses back on her face. "Though it's going to be a lot more challenging than just a simple reconnaissance. Not only do we have to find both of them, but we have to stop them. We'll probably need all of the Death Scythes here. Even that lazy Spirit…" Her face tensed for a moment at the mention of Maka's father.

"Oh, Yumi," Marie laughed nervously, "He's not all that bad. I'm sure he's just focused on being a parent too…"

"…Hah…Speaking of parents," Asuza narrowed her eyes, "How're things going with Stein?"

"Eh?" Marie blinked. "Since when to Stein and I relate to the word 'parent'?" Marie looked a little agitated.

"Since you two started living together."

"That's because I was order to, Yumi!" Marie said defensively.

"So you're saying you're not interested in him?"

Marie looked away, "Well…I didn't say that, but—"

"So you've finally found your 'someone' you keep mentioning. That someone you want to marry and have a family with."

"Yumi!" Marie shouted and slugged her friend in the shoulder. Asuza recoiled a bit and held her shoulder, "Geez, you're punch is as strong as ever…" Her friend muttered.

"Oh that wasn't a punch," Marie grinned deviously, "Do you want to see a real punch?" She balled up a fist and raised it a little higher than her jaw. Asuza took a step back and waved her hands in defeat, "N—no! Don't punch me."

Marie giggled like her usual self, "Don't worry, wasn't planning on it anyway."

Asuza paused, sighing a little. "But I wasn't joking, Marie. Do you really love Stein? I'm asking this because we're friends."

Marie looked at her left hand, and held it tightly with her right. She counted the little stitches that Stein had sewn in himself, out of care and consideration. Even if he really didn't love her, she at least knew that he cared about her. "…I don't know, Yumi. He's very different than the Stein I remember when we all went to Shibusen together…I never really know if he's going to start hallucinating, or act like a normal person…"

"You still haven't answered my question, Marie." Asuza replied, narrowing her navy eyes.

"I do," Marie admitted. "I know it's only been a short while since I've seen him in so long, but he…" She paused, "He's a lot kinder than what he once was. He used to be a teacher here, so it's not like he hates kids. He must have changed a lot when we were gone."

Asuza sighed through her nose lightly, adjusting her glasses with an index and thumb. "I talk to Spirit today, and asked him about Stein…He said that he's only gotten worse. Because they were former partners, Spirit knows a lot about him. A lot that you don't, Marie."

"But I've been living with him for a while!" Marie protested, "He's not the same little Stein who sliced up his enemies when they angered him!" Her voice quieted some, "He's…gentle." Her fingers still rubbed against the new scar on her hand.

"Even if he has changed," Asuza continued, "There's still a chance that he might revert back to the Stein we knew."

"Yumi!" Marie yelled back, looking angry. "I know!"

Asuza made her way to the exit, turning around slowly to give her friend a last look. "I'm just telling you this because I know how eager you are to settle down and start a family. We're friends, and I don't want you to make any decisions that you'll regret."

Marie nodded, "Thank you…But I already know the risks."

Asuza gave her another nod, and left, one of the double doors swooshing loudly as she vacated the area. Marie heaved a silent sigh, Maybe Yumi is right…But I can't force myself to hate Stein.

Regardless, in her current situation, she lived with him. Her feelings were still rather jumbled, and she hoped the rest of the day wouldn't come back to bite her.

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C: Yay! This is soopahr fun to write. Please review, and understand that I'm still a n00blet at fanfics. _ lll