D: Thanks for reviewing guys. Jk. *died* Stoopy Valentine's day. I drew some fan arts. Whoo. .com/fs40/f/2009/046/1/e/Stein_and_Marie_V_Day_by_TOXiC_ Sorry my Stein fails. It's the eyes. O` x `O I guess if I really want to, I could fix it, but I'm lazy. Yeah. Here's the kind of psycho chapter I promised. Not super psycho, you'll like the 7th (and beyond) chapter. = v = These chapters might be getting a little short so I can actually make things end up at 10 chapters! O _ o Yes. Sorry to clogging up this space here. NAO REED.

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Those few nocturnal hours they had spent with each other the previous night didn't even seem real. He had been so passionate, and so gentle. It didn't feel as though it were happening to them, but just watching the events play themselves out through a screen—like a movie.

Like the couple in the horror flick they watched together. Of course, their relationship with one another was on a different scale, yet it was somehow related. The girl of the story was generally well-liked by most people in the movie and had strong friends who helped her when she needed them most. The boy was of a different social status, and if the situation had been any different, they probably would have never interacted.

The boy was one of the loner kids. He didn't really have any friends at all, but was the type that needed to be comforted to really open up to people. His back story was his mother was a divorce lawyer, and because of her knowledge of the law, she easily snatched up her only son, who really wanted to stay with his father instead. He had secretly liked the girl, but because they were of two different social classes, they never talked to each other. She hadn't even noticed him.

The figure that brought them together was a spirit that only they could vanquish, though hadn't the slightest inkling as to why. At first, they dismissed the thought of a spirit coming to haunt them, but once their friends and family started paying for it with severe injuries and health conditions, they realized that it wasn't just a coincidence.

That's somewhat how Marie saw her connection with Stein. The romantic feelings were one-sided, that is, until a particular event brought the two together; Marie was to live with Stein. Marie made a promise to Joe before she left Australia that she'd keep a close eye on Stein. And she had.

Marie opened her dark amber eyes and stretched, "Steiiiiin~," She purred like a cat. She clawed lightly to reach over and embrace him, but his side of the bed was cold. "Huh?" She reached further, but the bed only grew colder. He's probably just somewhere around the house… She told herself. She sat up and stretched her arms again, letting a sort of gurgle. She felt better, but knew she was in need of a bath.

She found one of Stein's white stitched shirts lying around on the floor of his room and slipped it on, taking the short trip to the bathroom. Marie rubbed one of her eyes, still a little groggy, and continued towards the bathroom, but slowed when she pushed open the bathroom door.

There was Stein, his face buried in his hands. He was shaking again, and looked somewhat ill. "Stein?" Marie asked, kneeling down to his level. She placed one of her thin feminine hands on his. "…Stein, what's wrong?"

He didn't respond for quite some time, only making sudden sobbing sounds along with breathing violently. Combined with the quivering, he seemed like he was under some sort of delusion again. After their day as an average couple, he reverted back to hallucinating. His breathing was erratic, and he was curled up in a ball with his back pressed against a wall. He slowly brought down his hands so his olive-colored eyes could be seen. His pupils had contracted greatly and he looked scared out of his wits. A translucent liquid slowly escaped out of his lachrymal ducts and snaked its way down his horrified face. His bottom lip trembled.

"Marie," He managed to voice, their eyes instantly connected. His were of absolute fear. "I infected you with my insanity." He breathed almost soundlessly, but Marie could read his lips for that instant. "You've already contracted it."

"What?" She heard herself ask. "What do you mean, Stein!?" She asked, her voice rose as she pleaded to know more, shaking him once as if to snap him out of that trance.

He pulled his hands away from his face and started laughing hysterically, throwing back his shoulders and just busted out laughing. His grin warped, and his face seemed to be wrapped up in something, something skin-like. Stein opened his mouth to grin, but all she saw was those three red eyes and those fangs. Stein started to walk away, but his hands clamped tightly on her wrists—like hand cuffs. "Help me." He whispered, losing the Kishin's face and it returned to his own, afraid and alone.

"Stein!" she screamed.

Eh?

Marie blinked, feeling ashamed that she had been squeezing a grey bath towel calling Stein's name several times. She dropped it on the floor and held her head for a moment, taking a steady breath. I just woke up…I must be tired… She told herself, just assuring herself that she was delirious because she had just woken up and was tired. Still dreaming with her eyes open. Like someone who just stumbled out of bed and started brushing their teeth instead of brushing their hair, like they originally wanted.

She let out another sigh as she turned a screw-like knob to start the warm bath water flowing. At first, only a trickle, but then it expanded to a small low-rumbling waterfall. Marie usually just took showers because they used less water and less time, but she felt like she needed to relax. Just a jumble of thoughts and feelings she needed to get rid of the warm water that would soon envelop her.

Marie had already assembled the bubble bath supplies and slid Stein's white shirt off of her skin and onto the floor. As she dipped one foot into the warm waters, she reached behind her head of golden blonde hair to take off her eye patch. She set it on the bathroom counter near the skin, and then slowly descended into the bubbly bath waters.

Marie heaved a relieved sigh as the warm water felt lovely. She rested her head against the back of the tub and just stared at the ceiling. Like the floors, the ceiling to Stein's house was also grey and rather smooth-looking. Every sound in the bathroom echoed, and she could hear herself breathing rather loudly, though she wasn't trying to be noisy. It was also eerie, not hearing anything else but her own breathing and the rippling bathwater.

"Marie! What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a Death Scythe!"

Marie looked a little confused, "Why would you want to be a Death Scythe? That's a scary job…"

Her childhood friend closed his mouth, but then his face brightened and he opened it again, "To help Shinigami-Sama!" Her friend giggled. "What about you, Marie?"

Marie pondered for a bit, looking indecisive, "A mother."

Her friend laughed, "That's not a job!"

Marie nodded defensively, "Yes it is!"

"You're not paid for it though…"

"So," Marie responded, folding her arms. "It's one of the most important jobs ever!"

Her friend stayed silent, not really knowing what else to reply with. "You sure?"

Marie nodded vigorously, "Let's see if I can become a Death Scythe faster than you can!" she grinned and giggled.

"But I thought you said that it'd be a scary job!"

"So!" Marie replied defiantly, "I didn't say I was scared."

Marie faintly touched her left eyelid with her fingertips. She could still feel the mark that Stein left behind. The skin was tough and she moved the eyeball around in her head, feeling the raised tissue through the thinnest layer of skin. It hadn't really hurt, the scalpel entering her eye. It was more painful that she wasn't able to really move her eyes on a daily basis. She had to turn her entire head to face whichever direction she wanted to look at. It was the pain left behind.

Using your eyes to look at something faraway was just so much instinct, that it was hard not to. Though it was only one eye, it hurt enough for her to be blind. That's why she put on the eye patch. No one needed to see that pain. That's why she kept it on. She realized that at recent times when she met new people, they'd stare at the black eye patch unintentionally for a moment, then snapped back to whatever Marie was saying or doing.

After what felt like the longest time in the world, Marie picked up the towel sitting on the counter and left the warm water, goose bumps instantly arising from the drastic temperature change. She hadn't noticed, but Stein's house was pretty cold. She dried herself off quickly and placed the black eye patch on her again. She wrapped herself up the grey towel and examined her face in the mirror for a moment, noticing something peculiar about her skin.

Marie used her index finger to check it was just something on the bathroom mirror. No, it was definitely on her face. She brushed over it with a few more fingers, to see what its size was or to see if it hurt. It felt like a little scale connected to the rest of her skin. She thought it strange, but just plucked it off without another thought. Her accomplished smile faded when she saw that another scale was there.

She looked at the scale she had just picked off; it was in her right hand. It felt coarse but looked just like ordinary dead skin. Like the skin that peels off when you've got a bad sunburn. She picked off the other one, only to be horrified that another appeared. And another. With each little flake that she picked off, another took its place, only opening the scaly flesh.

She was getting scared, what the hell was happening to her!? Like a child who picks at their scabs until they bleed, Marie was hysterical about these strange little scales. She had picked most of them off and felt rather proud that she had ridded herself of the unsightly raised skin flakes. Her smile faded as she touched her skin again, it felt like cloth. Cloth? Her lungs swelled up with air involuntarily and she had this inclination to just start crying. Her head swam and throbbed like an open wound. She let out a laugh that was not her own, followed by another. And then a stream of laughs.

She forced herself out of it, placing both hands on the rim of the skin and glared at the mirror for a moment, her breathing quickened. She glared at her reflection, upper lip curled and expected it to make a different face back at her. She stifled a sigh and buried her face in her hands. "What's wrong with me…?" She muttered, screaming at herself inwardly.

"I've infected you with my insanity." Stein's panicked voice echoed in her mind.

"You've already contracted it."

Despite the fact that those words were also hallucinations, maybe their souls had been able to communicate for that moment. "What do you mean, Stein…?" She asked him under her breath, half-expecting a reply, but never got one. "What should I do know?" She wanted an answer, but couldn't manage to find any within herself.

She took a deep breath and went out of Stein's bathroom, still dressed in only a towel. She went back out into his bedroom, where she found her clothes and undergarments in a heap and took them back into the bathroom to change.

Cleaning up the small mess in the bathroom, she ventured out into his house, eyes open and trying to look for him. Where exactly was he? As Marie continued to wander, she realized how roomy his house was. Why was it so big? He was the only permanent resident. He only stayed in one wing of the house, where his bedroom, office and lab were all located.

The rest of the house was just empty rooms with cages in them, namely birdcages. They were empty and looked quite rusted. Why birdcages? Marie asked herself as she got distracted and wandered in to one of the rooms. Cages of all sorts of sizes. Some—she imagined—could have contained finches or some sort of small song birds, and some the size to just imprison a vulture. There was a large range of what she assumed were dog cages, and cat carriers…

There was also another space in the back of this room, where she ventured in further.

"I don't think you'll like what you'll see in there," A timid voice said, hand on her shoulder. She abruptly turned around to see who it was, but the closest life form around was a dead sparrow on the bottom of a small birdcage, on its speckled back with its reddish claws curled up and beak slightly open. By the looks of it, the bird had been there quite some time, though wasn't completely decaying yet.

It was missing feathers in places, but there weren't any worms crawling around on it or that sort of thing. Should she heed that sparrow's warning, or should she just give in to her curiosity about this darkened room in Stein's house? Did it matter? Who was a sparrow to tell her that some place in Stein's house was less than inviting! She cleaned a good portion of it. She knew what kind of person he was like. What could be so bad that a dead sparrow at the bottom of a small cage would utter a warning? Pfft. Now she wanted in more than ever.

She took several steps forward, being enshrouded in a blinding darkness. Her fingertips glided over the surface of the wall for a light switch, and after a few moments of searching blindly, she found it, and flicked it on. Although she hadn't realized it before, as soon as the light flicked on, a smell became so strong that it made her want to gag. It was repugnant and foul, and her skin curdled. She cupped her hands around her nose and mouth, the smell seeming all too familiar to bear.

She turned around, letting out a stifled shriek with her hands still around her mouth. A woman lay lifeless on a table in the center of the room. She had been there for what could have been several months. Bits and pieces of her mangy brown hair were missing and scattered on the smooth flooring around her. Her face was turned in Marie's direction, and Marie could see her sunken in eyes and what remained of the flesh around her face. Her teeth were exposed and a bright shade of pearly white. The remnants of her skin were a strange hue of a light navy and a shade of peridot.

Marie noticed that she still had fibers of the clothes she must have worn still attached to her body, but an area around her stomach had been ripped apart. As Marie walked closer, she noticed that all of the woman's organs had been ripped out. She was nothing more than a shell.

A little farther away from the rotting woman, there was a faded notebook that was opened to a certain page that Marie caught sight of and started to read. It was Stein's scrawled handwriting. It hadn't changed at all.

Question:

How much do unborn babies' organs differ from adults

There were sketches that Stein had drawn of what stage the fetus was in and what organs were supposedly developed. Sketches of its organs and a slight family history.

Are the physical bodies of weapons and technicians different?

More scrawled writing here and there, crammed into different parts of the page, a coffee stain here and there, the pages were ripped and torn, dog-eared and creased. Marie's heart beat wildly as her eyes rolled over to a dismembered fetus. It looked like the baby was just about to be born, but it was forcibly removed and sliced open. Its face was still intact though, Stein knew that their brain was still developing, and no interesting than a purple gray pile of pudding.

The umbilical cord had yet to be severed, though it had wilted like a flower.

He…He killed a mother and child!?

The baby hadn't rotted any, strangely. Yes, its blood was all dried up and it did look a little blue, but there was no caving in or puffing out in odd places like its mother. The muscles that were usually tight hadn't relaxed and expanded like its mother's. It was missing a few limbs and it was cut open, the impressions of its small organs that it currently lacked were clearly visible. It was hard to imagine that this baby's death was because of mutilation. Its face was so serene and peaceful; it just looked to be sleeping. If only its face were visible, it'd just look like it was down for a nap. Not dead.

Marie's eyes darted around the room, only to witness more horror. There were organs out in jars, preserved in formaldehyde, and organs not in jars or any sort of containment at all, just sitting out in the open to rot. Syringes of who knows what littered a specific counter place in the corner nearest her. There were several anatomy books all stacked on top of each other poorly, the one highest on the pile opened up to a picture of a woman with her entire muscular system exposed. He needed a reference.

Marie's eyes couldn't take anymore, and neither could her stomach. She backed out of the room, her legs moving on their own. Marie held back her stomach contents tightly, closing her throat as much as she could, but still allowing herself air to breathe.

"I told you, didn't I?" The same timid voice sounded again, and Marie looked in the direction of the dead sparrow. It was still there, on the bottom of the cage. Dead.

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After Marie had tried to venture around Patchwork Laboratory, looking for Stein, she eventually just gave up. He wasn't there. He had left, despite being under house arrest. Because it was a weekend, she didn't have to go to Shibusen to teach. Being alone in this big house that didn't belong to her made her feel cut off from the rest of the world. Sure, she could go outside, but she wanted to wait for Stein.

Where was he? She wanted to see him. She missed him. She'd be sure to yell at him when he returned. Scream at him in his ear for leaving when he wasn't supposed to. He had her worried!

Not to mention she'd probably be in trouble if he was caught. She'd reply with, "He was gone when I woke up!"

She was an early riser, and a pretty light sleeper too. Because they slept in the same bed, she should have been able to sense him leaving, and would have woken up and prevented it some happening. It had been a few hours, but she decided she'd give him some time.

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The front door clicked open and clicked back into place as footsteps echoed in the hallways again. A trail of white-grey smoke curled around like a snake and followed. A man with rimless glasses walked in nonchalantly with his hands crammed into the pockets of his white lab coat. His hair was messier than usual, and he wore his standard detached expression. He thought it strange that this room was vacant. He expected Marie to be cooking or something. He wasn't hearing any sounds at all.

Maybe she's just reading a book or something… He thought.

There was a feeling in the back of his mind that told him to go look for her. He wasn't too keen on the idea, but that feeling just wouldn't go away. It was like a nagging mosquito bite. Irritated, he sighed with himself and searched for her about the grey house.

After a few minutes, he found her, sitting in his bed curled up in a ball, her back pressed against the headboard. She must have heard him walk in, for she looked up, a little surprised and slightly dazed. "Stein?" She squeaked.

"Hn," He grumbled, as if to say 'yeah, what?'

Marie's face tightened up as she started to get up and crawled closer to him, glaring at him, though still on all fours. "Where the hell were you!?"

Stein fished out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. A white box with an 'X' printed on the front. "They're an imported brand, so I had to pick them up. The manager called earlier yesterday, but I wanted leave when you'd least expect it." He puffed out a grey cloud of smoke that curled around him like a slow tornado around his head. "Were you lonely?"

Marie shrank back and rearranged herself so she was sitting on the edge of the bed frame. She clasped her hands together and puffed out her cheeks, "N—not really…"

"What then?" Stein replied, awaiting a response of some sort. "You looked like you were ready to yell at me, what made you stop?"

"You had an explanation so…"

"So what?" He replied, using a tone that made it sound like she was the one who left despite house arrest. "What could've happened if I had been caught?"

Marie opened her mouth to say something, but closed it when nothing came out. "I don't know, Stein…"

Stein sighed and brushed a hand through his hair, keeping it on one spot on his forehead. "Sorry, the lack of nicotine screwed me over. I'm fine now, see?" He smiled once, just to demonstrate that he had control over himself, then returned to a blank expression.

"But why were you gone the entire day?!" Marie defended herself, clenching her fists.

"I got lost," He admitted, pulling out the cigarette and puffed out another cloud of smoke, then placed it back in between his two lips. "It happens from time to time."

"But why?" Marie asked, clearly confused. "You live here! How could you possibly get lost!? My sense of direction is shit but I can get from here to Shibusen without much of a problem!"

Stein glared at her, "I got lost." He replied firmly, walking over to an ashtray beside his bed and snuffed his cancer stick out, twisting it with the same precision that he would cut bodies with.

Marie narrowed her eyes. Why wasn't she telling him? What did he do for the rest of the day that he really didn't feel like confiding in Marie? Was he just that much of a cold-hearted bastard, or did he just like to toy with her? She could never really tell anymore. "Stein…!" She narrowed her eyes and growled back, tightened her firsts.

He gave her a displeased look and pulled off his lab coat, setting it on a nearby chair. He sat on the rim of the bed frame with her and popped off his shoes, then pulled his sweater off from over his head. He left the clothes in a pile at the end of the bed and walked over to the bedside table, taking off his glasses and set them in their proper place for the night. "I'd like to get some sleep if you don't mind." He said, indicating that he wanted her to turn out the light beside her.

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Feh. I can tell that the next chapter will probably be REALLY long, which will make up for the other two chapters that will be shorter than average. : Pleeaseeeeee give me advice and last minute suggestions. I thrive on your words, FF. :3 Thanks for reading and reviewing, guys~