This one is not too short, and not obnoxiously long either. I was going to make it longer, but I thought it would just be easier to do it this way. This next chapter is going to be a lot of what Spirit does at Stein's house.. have some things planned already. And I have had this one section already written for a point later on in chapter 7, when I was halfway through 6. Anyway, I really like this one. I must say, minus Stein's dad this had to be the most madness free chapter yet. This was good for Stein.. and poor Marie. Anyway, read it!

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 6 The "Midgets'" First Mission

Ever since his father's dissection, Stein had been... different, almost absent minded. Any emotion he had before, gone. He was cold, distant from everyone. He hated people; sure he did before, but it was worse now. Marie hated it, all the changes in him; it was starting to worry her. She thought she was starting to get him to warm up a bit, but nope. He was actually making progress with socializing, and he just took a huge step back.

He was more into science. Those were his thoughts, if he even knew what he was thinking. Since the day of the event, he had been craving dissecting; he thought this was weird though. He figured he would have been scared of them and try to avoid it at all costs, but he was actually being drawn into them. But since his dad had said he had to wait until he got older before he could start dissecting, he had to do it secretly.

He was actually starting to be outside a lot more due to this, but I mean, how else is he going to get the animals? He had been stealing the tools from his father, and did it well enough that he never got caught, which is very good considering how if father is.

He had been more out of it as well, had begun hallucinating more often. It was starting to get a little harder for him to tell what was real and what wasn't. Before there was always some way to tell that he was seeing stuff, but now he was never sure. Sometimes he would be sitting in class, and all of the sudden random things would appear around him, and half the time they wouldn't go away for a while. He would even end up seeing people and start trying to talk to them, obviously earning some weird looks.

He was actually getting pretty good at hiding the fact that he wasn't in reality all of the time. Some people would get suspicious as to why he was acting weird, but he was able to convince them. Part of this was because when he could tell it wasn't real, he could basically just ignore it. The hardest person to hide it from was always Mr. Collins.

Stein still didn't know that his father had went and told his teacher about him feeling madness wavelengths on the day of the dissection; lately he has been closer to finding out, since it's getting harder for Mr. Collins to not make it obvious. He was running out of excuses to tell the kid, but he was managing just well enough.

Lucky for Stein, he was still able to train. Over the week, he learned and perfected new techniques, and had gotten a lot better at using soul force. When training, he did have some trouble keeping it together. Sometimes he would start to see stuff, and his soul would start to feel a little different, but he would keep it under control as best as he could; most times, they wouldn't actually find out.

He had also begun to have more nightmares, and they were becoming more disturbing as well; often times, they were about his father and dissections.

He and his father weren't around each other much anymore, and his mother was part of the reason. She had found out the night it happened.

When Stein finally stopped hallucinating about the dissection from being so exhausted, he fell asleep. Not shortly after, his mother got home when he was having a nightmare. Stein started screaming at an unbelievable level, and his mother of course heard. She somehow managed to get the door open, Death knows how, and came in. Since he still didn't have a shirt on, she saw the fresh, new scar on his body.

She automatically knew why it was there, so after waking Stein from his nightmare, she tried to comfort him a little bit. She got him to calm down a little, and she stormed out of the room, yelling at his father once she reached his lab.

"Franken! How could you do that? He is your son! He is going to be terrified of you, don't you have any control?! I swear, I can't trust you with him anymore. You know what could have happened! What would you have done if you would have killed him? What the hell is wrong with you?!" Right after she finished, she ran out, slamming the door very loudly behind her. She got to her room, also slamming that door, and threw herself onto her bed.

She started to cry, she was terrified. She kept thinking of the possibility that her son could have died; that he could be dead right now if her husband would have lost all control. Stein could hear it all. The yelling, the slamming; he couldn't hear the crying, but he could tell by her soul.

Then Stein started to cry again, absolutely terrified for the same reason his mother was.

Ever since that night, his mother hasn't let his father get near him; only on very rare occasions. She has barely talked to her husband, she would never forgive him for that. He knew the risks that came with doing that, yet he still went ahead and cut his son open, all while he was fully conscious.

His father hardly ever came out of his lab now. He hardly stops dissecting; most of the time, there is no order to it. He just totally makes a mess, not containing himself one bit. He was very mad at himself, he regretted what he had done. Like I said, he actually does care a lot about his safety.

Now that Stein had begun to hallucinate a little less, and seemed more like himself, he had begun training better as well. They knew enough that Mr. Tredway had a mission picked out for them. They were going to Austria to collect the soul of a man named The Beholder, and he sure did look menacing.

He wore all black, spikes coming out all over him. His teeth also looked like very sharp spikes as well. He was fairly tall, muscular, and was very close to becoming a kishin. He was often found in the alleys of Austria, trying to find a soul to take.

Stein and Spirit were on their way there, discussing what they needed to do. Mr. Collins came along, but stayed off in the distance, making it seem as if he wasn't there. Mr. Tredway requested that he go with them to make sure they didn't get into any trouble; this is their first mission, so something could go wrong. Remember, this is basically a test run to see how they do in battle.

The man they were going after was very famous for beheading people, and he did this very successfully. His one hand actually transformed into a dagger kind of blade. So he was completely covered in spikes head to toe, had a dagger hand, was very tall and strong, and was known for cutting people's heads off; this should be fun.

Stein would have to watch out, as one swipe could end up killing him. And in order for him to use soul force, he will have to get up pretty close to him, and actually touch him. He would have to make sure he didn't hit one of the spikes, and he would also have to watch out for his head, as the closer you are, the greater chance you have of losing it. Not your mind, but your actual head.

When Marie heard who they were going up against, she just about started balling. She didn't at the academy, but she did, however, cry herself to sleep when she got home. She really loved that kid. Today since they were on their way to Austria, she couldn't pay attention at all. She can't stop worrying, about both Stein and Spirit, but mainly the gray-haired boy.

Kami was also very upset when she found out, but she didn't react nearly as much. Her eyes did start to water up when she hugged Spirit goodbye and wished him good luck, telling him that she wouldn't stop worrying until he got back. Marie wished she could hug Stein and never let go of him, but we all know that wouldn't happen, especially not now.

Lucky for Stein, the madness seemed to be at the lowest it had been in a while. Looks like things might actually go pretty well. He and Spirit are just going to have to be able to stay focused when fighting. Mr. Collins felt kind of at ease when he felt Stein's soul; it appeared to be relatively calm.

They actually enjoyed the way there, it was cool to get to see how different everything was from Death City. They were on a mission so they couldn't really stop and do anything, but at least they could see the place on the way there. Spirit protested in an effort to get Mr. Collins to take them somewhere, but soon gave up when he started to say that he would tell Kami about the way he talks to other girls.

See, Spirit has a very large need for girls, so when he talks to them, he usually ends up flirting. Although he had been putting all of his free energy into talking to Kami, he still ended up flirting with a lot of other girls. But he can't help it, he is just naturally like that; half the time he doesn't even try to sweet talk them, it just ends up that way. It was like a special skill that he had, some guys would probably call him gifted.

They were getting close to where the guy was; Mr. Collins could feel his soul, and Stein was starting to be able to. See, at this point Stein was getting fairly good at sensing people's souls. He couldn't quite tell characteristics, but he could see the size and shape of them, and one of the most basic characteristics; whether the person had evil in their soul. Everyone has at least a little bit of that, but if a person has even slightly a little more than usual, he can tell. This is the one characteristic he can do, and frankly, is quite good at it.

They were in an alley now, which is where The Beholder is usually spotted. They knew they would have to fight soon, so Spirit transformed. Stein caught him perfectly, like always, and prepared himself.

Mr. Collins still stood back in the distance, and observed their souls the entire time. He could tell the man was coming; Stein's soul was still calm, even though he was about to battle him; and Spirit's, on the other hand, showed that he was starting to get a little scared. But when going up against a man with a reputation like this guy's, you almost can't help but get scared at least a little bit.

They could see his shadow coming from around the bend; it looked very long and morphed, moving forward more and more until he finally became visible. Spirit started to shake a little bit, but quickly shook it off and was ready to fight. Stein remained calm the whole time, pleasing Mr. Collins.

The man was very large, just like they had heard. He was almost twice the height of Stein, but this didn't intimidate him one bit. The spikes were very long, at least a foot or two, and looked like they could do some real damage if they were to puncture through your skin. And when he grinned, his teeth made it look much more menacing. His eyes had an evil glint to them, like he craved violence, blood, and terror in others.

Stein gripped onto the staff of the scythe, standing his ground, showing no fear; this made The Beholder smirk.

"So that dumb academy sent the midgets after me, huh?" This made Stein widen his eyes to a cold glare. "And what the hell are you doing just standing there, Anthony?" As you have probably already guessed, that is Mr. Collins' first name. He is a very well-known meister, so it isn't very surprising that he knew his name.

"This is their fight, not mine." He said this, pointing to the weapon and meister pair.

"This should be taken care of very quickly then." He gave one final grin, then started charging at Stein. He swung the dagger at him, probably hoping to decapitate him. Stein brought up Spirit at the perfect time, blocking the attack.

Stein quickly moved the scythe, and swung it at the man's head. The Beholder ducked down, swiping at Stein's feet as he got lower. He jumped away from him, trying to think of a way he could use soul force; this was guaranteed to make it easier for Stein to slice into him with Spirit.

Before Stein knew it, The Beholder lunged at him again, trying to shove the dagger into his abdomen. This man could move, that was for sure.

"I'm not going to let you get me that easily, I seriously don't need another scar." As Stein said this, Spirit thought, "Another?" to himself. Stein sidestepped him, swinging at the man's back, trying to get him before he was fully turned around again. The Beholder just moved to the side, and ran at Stein. He swung again, and Stein just barely moved out of the way this time; the blade cut his arm slightly, a few drops of blood falling to the ground.

He ignored the cut, but the fact that he almost got him made him all the more determined to defeat him. He would not lose, and especially not during his first fight; he was better than that.

Stein ran and jumped at the man, making sure he was high enough in the air that The Beholder would have to aim high to get him, which happened just like Stein hoped it would. Stein used Spirit to block the dagger once again. He landed on the ground, still blocking the man's knife with his partner. Next, he shoved his fist into the man's abdomen, successfully avoiding the spikes that covered his body, and shot his soul wavelength into him.

From all of the training he had been doing, he had gotten it to be pretty powerful. The Beholder flew back and hit the wall of the alley, blood coming out of his mouth as he did so. Stein realized something. He could start to feel the man's soul, he could almost start to match his up with it. He remembered how when he hit Mr. Collins, their wavelengths were different so it caused more pain. He thought he could try something; experiment a bit.

The man fell to the ground, slowly getting up as he wiped his mouth.

"You'll have to do a lot more than that to kill me."

"Oh yeah? I think I'll have to take you up on that offer," Stein said this with a smirk on his face, remembering his idea. He ran towards the man as fast as he could, catching him slightly off guard at just how fast he was really going. He then hit the man in the stomach once more, sending him into the wall again. This time he was a lot closer to the wall, so he actually made it cave in a little bit when he hit it.

As Stein hit the man, he tried his best to feel his soul. He then tried changing his be the opposite, thus making the soul force attack hurt much more. It worked. This made the man fall to the ground again, but this timed he stayed down. Stein walked over to him so he was standing right above him, and the man looked up at him.

"Midget."

Stein clenched his teeth, and swiftly moved Spirit's blade across the man's throat, hard enough to cut pretty deep. For the final attack, Stein lifted the scythe in the air, his eyes now having a very menacing look to them, and brought it down very hard, piercing through the man's chest; more specifically, his heart. He dragged the blade down, all the way to the middle of his abdomen. As you can imagine, this completely tore his heart, causing blood to gush out. He took it out, quickly moving the scythe to his side, the blood dripping completely off as he did so.

He made his face totally blank and emotionless once again, then turned around and walked to his teacher.

"Very nicely done, Stein. At first I thought I was going to have to help out a bit, but then you handled it very well. I'm impressed." Mr. Collins was smiling, enjoying how well he had performed. The blade of the scythe changed, now showing Spirit through it.

"Holy crap, Stein! That was awesome!" Stein hardly seemed to notice what they were saying at all, it had no effect on him.

"We have only been training for the last month. And I wasn't going to let that idiot beat me, it all would have been a waste of time then."

"Yeah, I suppose it would have," Mr. Collins said in agreement, "but this couldn't have gone any better."

"Yes, I could have avoided getting my arm cut."

"Oh Stein, stop being so hard on yourself. You did very well, especially since this was your first mission. It didn't take you long at all to defeat him."

"Yeah Stein, just relax for once."

"Maybe when we don't have any more close calls."

"We only had like one or two!"

"That's one or two too many."

"Come on, you did very well. Let's just leave it at that." Mr. Collins didn't want them to start arguing, so he decided to intervene.

"I'm good with that." By the way Spirit sounded, he didn't exactly want to argue either.

"Fine, but we can still improve."

"Well of course, there's always room for improvement. But it won't happen all at once, it will take time. Don't worry, you have made a lot of progress for it only being a month." Spirit transformed into his human form, then nodded his head.

Stein didn't respond, as he was thinking about something; it was about how he had changed his wavelength to make his soul force attack hurt even more. His idea had worked, his theory was right, and he was glad. He figured he could start working on this during battles. He could also just try changing his wavelength to fit with or go against other people's, basically at any time. He knew he could do something with this, and he was actually right.

"Well, now that you guys have completed your goal, we can head back to the academy. I think Mr. Tredway will be very pleased when he hears how it went. To think, the other students aren't even anywhere close to being able to do this. I seriously doubt they have started on any super skills."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool that we have learned this much." Spirit always seemed enthusiastic about fighting and training, and has a lot more lately. Since they have been getting a lot better, he has started to enjoy his classes more as well.

"It really is. Hey, Stein, are you going to tell your dad how it went?" Right when he said this, Stein got very tense. "What do you think he would say about it? He seems fairly interested in how your training goes."

"I don't know." Stein snapped back; he thought about how he wasn't going to tell him, he wasn't even allowed to be around him anymore. His mother appeared to be a little more lenient about it lately, but he personally just didn't want to see him anyway.

"Hmm.. you'll just have to see." Mr. Collins always tried to ignore Stein's bad mood. He never gets mad, so he can deal with him pretty well.

"I'm not going to tell him."

"Why not?" Mr. Collins seemed confused, he thought Stein and his dad actually talked about that kind of stuff. By the way he and his father talked, it seemed like he kept him up to date.

"Yeah, why not? We did awesome, he would want to know."

"I don't want to talk to him, or be near him for that matter." He was being really stubborn. They would never understand why this was, I mean they've never had their dads drug them, cut them open, and touch their organs, laughing throughout the entire process of it; all of the laughter being from their pain.

"Why? He's your father, you have to at least be around him," Spirit responded, having a tone to his voice that made it sound like he was saying something obvious, which in all honestly, he was.

"I would honestly rather not talk about it."

"Oh, okay." Spirit didn't get why Stein shot him down so quickly like that. Oh well, he would have to find out eventually, especially if they were going to be partners for as long as they were. By the time they are done being partners, they will know each other practically like they know themselves.

Mr. Collins noticed how he had been weird lately, then saw the way he reacted the minute he mentioned his father... could something had happened? It did make sense; he started acting strange the day after his father came to his house. Could that be any kind of connection? It wasn't exactly a connection, but something did happen.

Both Spirit and Mr. Collins stood there for a minute, staring at Stein; they didn't even know they were staring. Stein quickly noticed, and tried to change the subject.

"Can we go?"

"Oh! yes, I almost forgot we were leaving."

"You did forget." You would have expected this to come out of Stein, I am sure you all assumed that. But no, it was actually Spirit. At times he could be smart with his teacher, so it wasn't really all that surprising.

They started walking down the streets, and the meisters felt something; a very powerful, strong soul. They followed where it led to, and it was actually not that far up the road. When they got there, they saw a woman standing with a girl. The girl appeared to be about the same age as Stein and Spirit, and the woman the same as Mr. Collins.

Mr. Collins knew what kind of soul it was, but Stein didn't since he had never felt one before; it was a witch. Both of them actually were. They both looked like each other, but their outfits were slightly different. Mr. Collins noticed that the older of the two was a very well know witch, one of the most powerful ones to ever live.

"Guys, stay calm. They don't seem to be causing any trouble and I definitely don't want to cause any trouble, so we are just going to let them go by. Just stay by me in case they try to attack." He said this to them, practically whispering. Stein and Spirit just got slightly closer behind, and they continued to walk by the two witches.

The thing about them was, they seemed to have a general theme about them. It was snakes. As they went by, the older one narrowed her snake-like eyes, holding onto the younger one. Lucky for the guys, they went by without attacking. The witches just glared the entire time, until they were no longer visible.

"That witch is a very famous one, she is actually one of the most powerful ones to ever live. That is why we are very lucky that they didn't try to hurt any of us, especially one of you two. If she were to try anything, you guys probably wouldn't stand a chance. She is far too powerful for new one star meisters. The little one is her daughter, her name is Medusa. It surprises me how little power she has. You would figure with a mother like her's, she would have a lot of magic at this point. By this age, she should have her magic at least somewhat developed; I doubt she will ever end up being even half as good as her mother. I also seriously doubt she will ever be of any trouble either, we shouldn't have to worry."

He was completely wrong about that last statement. What Mr. Collins didn't know was that she would grow up to be an extremely powerful witch, the one that revives the kishin, Asura. She will almost completely take over the world.

What Stein didn't know was that he would end up fighting against her underneath the academy. That he would kill her, but later find out she is still alive. She will be the person to destroy him, to make him give in to the madness. He also didn't know that he would end up joining her.

There really isn't much for Spirit, but later he will joke around about her bloomers. He would have a daughter, and she will be a very talented meister, just like her mother. She will be the one to end Medusa, once and for all.

While they were on their way home, Marie and Kami were still worrying.

"Ugh! I can't stop thinking about them!" This was honestly the most distressed Marie had sounded in a while. Lately she has seemed a little upset due to Stein's recent drawn back behavior, but not like this.

"I know! I haven't been able to pay attention in any of my classes. I knew they would have to go some day, and I really didn't expect myself to worry this much. They have a teacher going with them for Death's sake, they should be fine... but I still can't help but worry."

"They can still get hurt, even if there is a teacher with them. That guy is known for beheading people; I don't really think Mr. Collins is going to be able to help in time if something does happen. I want them to come back." As Marie said this, she put her head down on the desk she was sitting at, wishing for nothing more than to see Stein again. Wow did they get worked up over this.

They were closer to being home now, and it had been a while since they had seen the witches; it was about 30 minutes ago. There had been a fairly long silence, not a single word having been spoken. A thought came to Spirit, and he broke the silence.

"Hey! Stein," Spirit said this in a way that made it pretty obvious that he was trying to get his attention.

"Hm?" Stein acknowledged his partner, slightly raising his eyebrow as he looked over.

"I forgot to mention this earlier, but my parents aren't going to be home tonight. Would it be cool if I crashed at your place for the night? I promise, I won't be annoying."

"Uh, sure. I don't see why not; my mom certainly won't mind. She seems to think I need to socialize, so this should please her." Stein didn't have to worry about his father, he knew he would be in his lab the whole time. He knew he would just dissect stuff, so he wouldn't leave that room for anything.

"Awesome! And like you said before, we need to practice outside of school sometime. Maybe we could do that then. I mean, we will be together, it will work out perfectly."

"Yeah, we can do that. I definitely don't mind practicing." Mr. Collins had something to say.

"Well, if you guys are going to practice, there is something specific I want you to work on."

"What is it?" Stein said this, not breaking from his regular bland tone.

"I want you guys to try and move faster. Stein, you were complaining about having too many close calls, right? Well, if you can move faster, this should help reduce that a lot."

"Okay, and how do we do that?"

"Yeah, is there even anything I could do?"

"Yes, Spirit, there actually is. Stein, you could build up your endurance. While doing this, it will make you be able to go fast longer, and will actually help you go faster in general. Spirit, I want you to do this with him." Spirit had a kind of confused look on his face.

"I know you won't exactly be moving, but there are a few reasons why I want you to do this with him. If something were to happen and you would have to run away, you wouldn't be able to make it very far, and you could end up getting hurt because of this. Another reason is it will help build your endurance, just like I said for Stein. This is also important to you because you actually can get tired in weapon form, which you have already experienced I am sure. You need to keep your strength up, especially when resonating. The stronger the both of you are, the better you will fight."

This actually did make a lot of sense to them, and as for Spirit, he would have a lot of work to do to even be close to having the same endurance Stein currently has. He never really had to do much running, so he wasn't used to it. Stein, on the other hand, does: he frequently runs to school, he runs away from hallucinations that scare the living crap out of him, and he also had to run out of his father's lab pretty fast.

"Okay, I think we can do that." Spirit said this, not thinking of how tired he was actually going to be. You see, Stein likes to train hard, so you can just imagine how much running they will do. Spirit is lazy, and doesn't like to exercise much; this isn't going to be fun for him.

"Stein, I need you to do some extra things as well."

"I'll do anything to improve."

"I am very glad to hear that, I love your attitude towards training. I need you to build more muscle, if you can, lift weights or do something that will help you gain muscle. I think this should help a lot; it might make your soul force attack hurt more if you can hit harder. I also want you to work on soul force, see if you can do anything to make it any more powerful. It is already extremely powerful, especially considering you have only know of its existence for a month; I can't wait to see how well you can use it in a few years."

"Alright, I can do all of those things. I want to be able to use soul force as well as I possibly can. I think there may be a few things I can try to be able to use it better to my advantage."

"Oh, yeah? You have some ideas?" Mr. Collins always loved talking to him; Stein was actually extremely mature for his age, and was a very smart kid.

"Yes. I noticed the first time I used soul force on The Beholder, I could almost start to feel his soul; it seemed almost like I could connect with it. Then I remembered that since our souls are different, when I used soul force on you, it caused you more pain... and since I wasn't used to it yet, it actually hurt me a bit as well." Mr. Collins remembered how much it hurt when he hit him, and how he ran off afterwards.

"What about it?"

"Well, I thought just maybe I could change my soul, making it be the opposite; that would make it much more painful to him. It actually worked like I had thought. Maybe I could practice changing my soul accordingly to other people, and use that to my advantage."

"You actually might be onto something... work on that and see how it goes. I think that will actually work very well. I have never seen anyone do that before, but now that you mentioned it, that sounds like it would really help when fighting an enemy. If you can get that to work, maybe you could try and see what happens when you match your soul up to theirs, rather than making it the opposite; just an idea."

"You are correct, I will have to try that as well."

"Stein, I swear you're a genius. Leave it to you to be the one to figure that out."

"He is smart, that's for sure." Stein didn't respond, just simply kept looking straight ahead and kept on walking. This didn't really surprise them, though. They shrugged to each other, and continued on their way home.

Stein's father was in his lab, standing next to the table he always used for dissections. He was resting his head on the chest of a cat that currently laid on that table; that was the first time he had stepped outside of his lab in a few days, and it was to get the neighbor's cat. He was running out of things to dissect, and his son was obviously off limits.

His wife said she would call the police and have him taken away if he would try to do that to her or her son (again in his case), so he decided it was best not to; he wouldn't be able to dissect anything if he was locked up. There was no way they would even think about giving him a scalpel.

"Why..." He started to laugh, probably for the millionth time that day. "I shouldn't have done that..." His voice was low and broken, obviously he was struggling. "Keira..." He started to laugh, even more hysterically than the last time.

She was sitting outside the door listening to her husband. She knew it killed him inside, she knew he regretted what he had done; it was destroying him. He couldn't stop thinking about what he could have done to him. Some evenings, he would start hallucinating that he was dissecting his son again, and that he was actually killing him this time, and it would go on for hours. He would even scream sometimes, at himself. Not someone else, but the him he was hallucinating was there, killing his son.

Every time Keira would hear him start to scream, laugh, or just anything like that, she wanted to help him. But she was honestly too afraid. She knew what could happen if she would go in there, so she just sat and listened. It killed her as well, both from the fact of what had happened to Stein, and from how his dad was reacting to it. She also knew that she wouldn't really be able to do anything to help in the end; it made her feel almost powerless.

Ever since Franken came up from that basement, he wasn't himself anymore.

He stood up as much as he could, and tipped the table over, completely forgetting that the cat was even there. He just started throwing everything, yelling, "I'M SUCH AN IDIOT!" as he did so, his voice dissolving into laughter. He started smashing stuff like beakers and vials, and started to tear into the cat, using the scalpel to slice right through its heart; he then threw the organ as well.

Keira heard him, and bursted into tears, running into her room so he wouldn't hear her.

Stein, Spirit, and Mr. Collins all got to the academy as everyone was leaving. Kami and Marie saw them as they were walking out, and sprinted over to them. When they got there, Kami hugged Spirit and wouldn't let go for a few minutes; Spirit didn't mind. Marie didn't hug Stein, but started to talk to him.

"What happened to your arm? Did you get hurt?" Marie cared about him almost more than anyone else in the world.

"I just got cut, I am fine."

"You better be!" She couldn't hold it in anymore. She ran up to Stein and wrapped her arms around him. His eyes widened and he just got tense. Mr. Collins started laughing at how the girls were reacting to them coming home, obviously enjoying what Marie was doing the most.

Kami and Spirit noticed what Marie had done; that was when they stopped hugging. They just kind of stood and watched what Stein was doing about it. Marie held on for about a minute, Stein not moving a single bit the whole time, until he said something.

"Marie... what are you doing?"

"Oh, sorry." She let go, kind of disappointed that he didn't hug her back, and that he just stood there. At the same time she wasn't very surprised, she almost expected it. She looked at her feet, starting to blush slightly.

"I am so glad that you guys are home!" Kami broke the silence for Marie; she did this mainly because she owed her one for embarrassing her before.

Stein's eyes got less wide, and he loosened up a bit, still obviously shocked from the recent physical contact. Spirit looked like he was about to laugh, but decided not to when Stein glared at him; he noticed what his weapon partner was going to do.

"Well, I better get going!" Marie said this, waving as she walked away. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Any of the other times when she thought Stein looked lonely, or down, or she just generally wanted to give him a hug, she managed to stop herself; why not this time? She supposed it was just because she was so worried about him, and it was.

They all watched her leave, then Kami said that she should go too and hugged Spirit again. Mr. Collins really wanted to make a remark about Marie hugging Stein, but he decided not to.

"Stein got a hug!" Spirit said this, obviously teasing him, laughing at the end. Stein punched him really hard in the arm, and Spirit yelled "Ow!" He started to rub his arm, thinking that it was worth the pain.

"I know." Stein said this with a totally blank face, almost a glare. But then loosened up, looking less annoyed by it. "But I am honestly not surprised. She seems like she is the type of person that would like physical contact."

"Yeah, she certainly does; she is always so cheerful. She really does seem like she cares about you, though," Mr. Collins said this, slightly fearing that he would get punched as well. Stein just kind of looked away, not liking the current topic at all.

"It's true, Stein. You can just tell by the way she acts around you." Stein sent him a glare, causing Spirit to flinch from an expectation of getting punched once again. But he didn't, the glare was enough for him.

"Stein, lighten up a little. It's not so bad to have someone that cares about you." He obviously didn't care about her the way she cared about him. He just kind of looked over at Mr. Collins, not having anything to say about it.

"Yeah Stein, a girl is actually paying attention to you! I don't know how you wouldn't like that. I couldn't stand to be apart from them!" Like always, Stein's lack of appeal towards girls was agitating Spirit to no end.

"Anyone that knows you knows that." Mr. Collins said, looking down at Spirit.

"That is more than true." Stein said this, thinking of all of the girls he talks to throughout the day. He was always with ones besides Kami, which made her get extremely mad at him when she would find out; lucky for him it wasn't very often. Sure they weren't dating, which surprised everyone, but she still had a tendency to get very jealous.

"I need to go tell Mr. Tredway about how the mission went. You guys can just go home now; have fun at your sleepover!" He yelled over his shoulder, smirking as he turned around and walked into the academy. Stein wanted to punch him, but he didn't really feel like chasing after him and going into the academy, all just for that. It would be weird.

"I swear, that man teaches just so he can mess with his students." Spirit said this, looking over at Stein.

"At times, it really seems like it." Stein looked away from the academy's doors, and faced Spirit. He had been using his soul perception, trying to determine how far he was down the hallway. He was still debating going after him slightly.

"Let's stop by my house first, that way I can get clothes, pillows, stuff like that."

"Okay, but don't your parents lock their doors when they go out of town?"

"Yeah, but I'll find a way in." Stein rolled his eye, not understanding how he would be able to do that.

They started down the road and reached Spirit's house not long after. He, of course, had to point out which house was Kami's so Stein could see; not that he would really care anyway.

Spirit walked around to the side of his house, getting up to the window that was the closest to the ground. He pushed himself up so he would be able to open it, but realized that those were locked as well. So he got down, walking past Stein and over to his driveway.

"What on Earth are you doing, Spirit?"

"Finding a way into the house," Spirit said this, picking up a large rock, walking back over to the window. He threw it at it, causing it to shatter. At that point, Stein couldn't think he was any more stupid even if he tried, and Spirit could tell this by the look he was giving him.

"They'll fix it when they get back!" Spirit yelled as he was halfway through the window.

"You're an idiot, Spirit," Stein said this, earning an aggravated sort of noise from his partner.

"Trust me. This isn't the first time I have done this."

"Of course it isn't." Stein really did enjoy being smart with him.

Spirit gave him a quick glare, one that was light in comparison to Stein's cold ones, running to his room after. He shortly ran out to the window, climbing out with a bag hung over his shoulder.

"You ready, stupid?"

"Yes, I am ready. And I am not that stupid."

"Oh yes, you are." Spirit tried to glare again, but failed horribly at it, causing Stein to laugh to himself a little bit. Then he shot his coldest glare yet to Spirit, causing his partner to shiver and back up slightly.

"What the heck was that for?"

"That, is how you glare." He said this, smirking at the end.

"No, that is how to shock someone into a coma."

"That's a glare. If I wanted to shock someone into a coma, I would use soul force. Or ask you to try to wire something."

"... That would actually work very well."

"Yes, it would be very efficient."

They were on Stein's road, and all of the neighbors that were staring at him almost went into a coma themselves, just from seeing him with another kid. They had seen him talking many times when he would walk by; the weird thing is, someone was actually there this time.

Alright, I am going to start on the next one, basically immediately. Like I said, it was just going to be one long chapter, but I decided I would break it up a little bit so you wouldn't have to wait so long.. And haha, yes, they went to Austria. I think the next chapter is going to be one of the last, if not last, chapters before I jump ahead to their teen years. That will be, by far, my favorite part to write. IT WILL BE SWEET. Hmm... the fate of old Franken's sanity lies in my hands.. what shall I do with it I wonder...