I got a little bit lazy with getting this one done.. It didn't help that I was messing around with my sleep patterns a bunch. Anyway, I seriously hope you like this, I don't have much to say, and depending on feedback, this will be the last chapter before they are teenagers... so much will happen then. Yadada, read it. REVIEW! I HAVE OVER 425 REVIEWS AND ONLY LIKE 9 REVIEWS, MOST BEING FROM THE SAME EXTREMELY KIND PEOPLE. COME ON.

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 7 The Boys' "Sleepover"

The two boys walked into Stein's house, going to his mother first.

"Who's this?" She asked, smiling like she always did. This time it wasn't just because she was cheerful, it was because Stein had someone over. That had never happened yet, and she was starting to think that it never would.

"This is Spirit. He's my partner at the academy; he's a scythe."

"Well, hello Spirit. It's nice to meet you," She said this, smiling down at the boy. She was probably a little too excited.

"It's nice to meet you, too." Spirit made sure he had manners. If he was going to stay at their house, he was going to need to be polite.

"Spirit's parents were going to be out of town for the night, so he was wondering if he could stay here."

"Of course he can! It will be no problem at all."

"Thank you," Spirit said this, yet again, making sure he was polite.

"You're very welcome. Like I said, it's no problem." She was glad that Stein would be talking to someone, he needed it.

"We are going to go to my room now." He said this as he started to walk away.

"You two have fun!" Spirit followed Stein down one of the hallways after she said this.

"You can just sit your stuff wherever really." Considering he still didn't have furniture, there wasn't really anything for it to get in the way of.

"Uh.. why don't you have any furniture in here?"

"I broke it all.." He said this, looking away from Spirit. "Don't ask."

"Don't worry, I won't." Spirit said this as he looked at the little piles on the floor: one was for clothes; one for books; one for notebooks; another had all of his stuff for expriments, mainly beakers and different chemicals; and a new one for his dissection stuff.

His father never, ever went into his room anymore, so he didn't have to worry about him seeing the stuff anyway.

"I thought your dad said he wouldn't let you dissect stuff until you got older?"

"He did." He said this, completely emotionless.

"Then why do you have the stuff?" Spirit seemed quite confused, which is acutally kind of understandable.

"Because he doesn't have to know."

"Won't he see it if it's just laying there?" He looked back from the pile and over at Stein.

"No, he never comes into my room."

"Oh. Will your mom tell him?"

"No, she said that she wouldn't." And he was definitely more than glad about this.

"Oh, okay. Your mom seems like she is really nice."

"Yeah, she is. Half the reason why she was acting the way she was is because you're here."

"She did seem like she was a bit overly happy." Spirit said this, looking at the pile once again, trying to think of how he could have broke all of his furniture.

"Yeah, it happens." There was a brief pause until Spirit broke it.

"Do you want to train?"

"Sure, I don't really see what else there is to do. Why not?" At this they both left his room and went outside. His mother wanted to ask what they were doing, but she didn't want to be annoying. She also didn't want to get in the way since he never really has friends over. In all reality, Spirit is basically Stein's only friend.

They got outside and went fairly far away from his house, and into his backyard. He acutally had quite a lot of land around his house. Not so much on the sides or the front, but more so his backyard. This would give them plenty of space for training.

Spirit transformed into a scythe, landing in Stein's hands. His mother watched out of a window in the back of the house. She thought it looked cool, and she just loved watching her son do something else other than sit in his room and read or experiment all day like he always did.

"Let's resonate a little bit before we run," Stein said this, thinking of the path that he had in the woods behind his house that he would tell his partner about when they were done.

"Okay, sounds good." Spirit started trying to feel Stein's wavelength, just as the other boy did the same. They began resonating, and the space around them started glowing blue, and wind started to blow around them; which all impressed his mother. She knew he was doing well for his age, but she had never seen him actually do anything yet.

They got their resonance to be very strong, and Stein tried to do witch hunter, even though there was really nothing to swing at.

The blade of the scyth changed into a large, blue transparent-like blade.

He tried to hold it as long as he possibly could. He got it to stay for a few minutes before it broke, which is actually rather good, considering most people can only keep it under a minute.

"Can we try one more time before we run?" Spirit asked this, earning the response he wanted to hear from Stein. Since he had agreed, they began resonating once more. They got it to the same point, but a little stronger.

As the blade changed, there was a sudden increase in the madness wavelengths; the one that Stein acutally hadn't felt all day, and hadn't been nearly as often as he used to. The resonance instantly broke due to this, as Stein's soul was rather different now, so it wouldn't match properly with Spirit's.

"What was that?" Spirit was more wondering why the resonance had broken. He still wasn't the best at feeling Stein's soul, so he could not tell that it changed very much; but he did a little bit, however.

"I don't know.." He said he didn't know, but he very well did. "Let's just try again.." The madness wavelengths were still at the same level as before, so he wasn't all that sure that it would even work, but wanted to see if he could get used to it.

"Sure thing," Spirit said this in a kind suspicious tone, but started to feel and try to connect with his soul anyway. He could tell something felt off about it, but he had no clue what it could be.

They began resonating, it worked at first. But Stein could feel the resonance starting to want to break, so he tried harder. He was acutally putting forth a lot of energy, and it was starting to exhaust him. But he wanted to be able to get use to it, that way if he were ever on a mission fighting someone and the wavelengths were to increase, he could still keep going.

He felt it start to slip more and more, so he just kept trying. He was actually very tired, and he felt it slip one more time and knew he couldn't stop it, so he just let the resonance break. The scythe changed to show Spirit in it.

"Why isn't it working, Stein?" He seemed concerned.

"I really don't know. Can we just run now? We can try again later when we get back."

"Uh, okay." The scythe changed back before he transformed back into human form, landing next to Stein. He gave him a sort of weird look, but stopped when Stein looked at him.

"Back in the woods there is a fairly long path that we can use. I have been on it quite a few times (that's where he went when searching for animals to dissect), and there isn't much that will get in the way."

"Okay, that should work." At that, they started running.

Stein was a little faster than Spirit, but he knew he wasn't used to it, so he slowed his pace down a little bit. They went at a fairly steady pace, and at first it was acutally pretty easy for them. At the time, it was kind of windy so the heat in the air wasn't too bad.

They saw some squirrels and rabbits, but Stein obviously didn't stop to get them, even though he kind of wished he would have. They got startled a few times when a group of birds would fly out over them from their nests. This didn't get to Stein as much as it did Spirit.

They went through the path quite a bit, and the sun was beating down through the trees, making them get pretty hot. Spirit started to get tired out, and started slowing down. Stein, however, still could have ran a long way. He knew that he was going to need some motivation to keep going, and he also knew that they needed to do this, so he thought of something after thinking for a bit.

"Hey, Spirit. You can stop for a minute." Spirit quickly stopped, breathing very heavily, glad that his partner was giving him a break. Stein had to catch his breath a little bit, but not nearly as much as Spirit did. He stood there for a couple minutes, that way he knew Spirit could pay attention.

"I have an idea. Let's race." As Stein said this, Spirit looked up. He didn't expect him to say this. He usually didn't like doing things like games; he had tried to get him to enough to know that by now. He smiled before responding.

"Okay, let's race."

"But-" Spirit interrupted him.

"But?" He was half interested, and half fearful of what he was going to say. He didn't want Stein to make this worse than it had to be.

"But, the loser get's a punishment."

"Okay, what's mine?" Spirit was interested now, not afraid.

"Hmm.." Stein thought. He hadn't thought of one yet, which he wondered why he hadn't. "If you lose, I will tell Kami about the girl you kissed behind the academy the other day."

"No! That's too much! Don't you know how mad she will get?!" Spirit started whining to him, wishing for some other punishment than that one.

"Nope. That's your punishment. You better run fast." Spirit tried, yet failed again, to glare. He couldn't glare when he was still trying to get his breath; and at this point Stein wasn't tired at all anymore.

"Ugh! Fine. But you run faster than I do!"

"Like I said, you better fun fast." He had a slight smirk on his face, enjoying his partner's reaction. He was going to get him to run.

Spirit made a groaning noise, then started trying to think of a terrible one for Stein, just in case if he did happen to win against him. Then he thought of it.

"Okay. That will be my punishment. If I win, you have to tell me why you said "another" scar, and why you acted so weird about your dad." Stein instantly got stiff. But he realized that he would win for sure considering the shape Spirit was in, so he agreed.

"Fine. If you win, I will tell you. If I win, I will tell Kami." When he said he would tell Kami, he obviously didn't mean what he was going to tell Spirit.

"Deal." As soon as Spirit said this, he started getting anxious. He started to think of what she would do if she were to find out about it. She got extremely angry when he would even talk to a girl without her knowing, let alone kiss someone!

They gave each other a look, signaling each other to begin. So they started. At first Spirit ran ahead in front of Stein, not pacing himself at all. Stein didn't mind though since he knew it would quickly tire him out, and Stein would be able to pass him easily.

Not too longer after he thought this, he knew he was right. Spirit started to slow down, and Stein was getting close enough that he could start to hear just how heavily he was breathing. "He was an idiot; there is no way he would win that way," Stein thought as he ran next to him.

He ran ahead of him, being in the lead by quite a lot. Spirit started to get worried, and slowed down a lot. He started making whining noises, regretting that he ever agreed to this. He should have known that Stein would win, he was doomed for sure. He kept scolding himself, wanting to smash his head off a tree as hard as he could. Maybe Stein wouldn't tell her if he had a concussion; which in reality, he would still tell her either way.

They ran a long way in this position, but then Stein was starting to get a little tired. He could run a lot for someone that sat around all day. For some reason, Spirit wasn't surprised. He just seemed like the kind of person that was capable of anything if he tried.

Since Spirit had been going at such a slow pace for that long, he wasn't nearly as tired as before. He slowly started to get closer to Stein, inch by inch. He was starting to get more confident, and this helped him run better. It's surprising just how much confidence can effect what you do, and how you do it.

Before they knew it, Spirit was running right beside Stein. They were both extremely exhausted; they didn't even want to think of the way back. They were hoping that one another would let them just walk back.

Spirit started to get ahead of Stein, which started to make him mad. No matter how much he tried, he just couldn't go any faster. They had been running to long.

The trail was actually five miles, and they had almost ran the entire thing. Stein, of course, knew that they would be fairly dehydrated when they were done. He just hoped it wouldn't be too bad. He knew from a book he read, that the effects of dehydration can acutally get to be very serious.

I know from personal experience, that you can get very sick. It is not a fun feeling at all. I had to take some medicine for it, but since I absolutely hate the stuff, I refused to take it. This resulted in my mom trying to give me it in my sleep (which when writing this, made me think of the comparison of what Franken did), and I woke up half choking. Good job, mother.

They were starting to get to the end of the trail, which was a dead end. There was a river down a bank, the bank in which they would have to reach the bottom of to win. When Spirit saw the water, all he wanted to do was jump in. He wanted to drink the water, and swim in it. It was unbelievably hot out, and it didn't help that they were now running and racing each other.

Stein almost knew he was going to loose, as Spirit was almost about to go down the bank. He started sprinting as fast as he could, and started to catch up slightly; but unfortunately for him, it wasn't enough. Spirit reached the bottom, and was more than glad. He started to do a little dance, making himself look rather stupid.

Stein reached the bottom shortly after, and punched Spirit in the arm very hard. He seriously didn't want to tell him.

"Ow! What was that for?" He rubbed his arm again like he did earlier that day when they were at the academy.

"For dancing like an idiot." Stein said this, catching his breath; which Spirit was doing as well, but he was too happy to even take notice to. He hated that he was rubbing it in his face. He started to nervous. He really didn't want to have to explain it to him.. he had never needed to. His mother just assumed, so he never had to for her to find out.

Spirit slowly stopped rubbing his arms, looking over at the water as he did so.

"What? Do you want to get in?" Stein was just trying to buy some time before he would ask him.

"Yeah, I really do." He said this, looking back at Stein.

"Okay, well go ahead." He hoped that if he got in, he would just forget about it completely. But his hopes were soon gone.

"Okay, I will. But before I do, you have to tell me." Dang it.

He waited a minute before saying anything.

"Fine. I will do it when we are getting in." Spirit thought this was fine and got down closer to the water. He bent down and put his hand in, feeling that is wasn't too cold. They would want to avoid getting their clothes wet as best as they possibly could, but obviously would want to keep the bottom half covered.

So Spirit took his shoes and socks off, sticking them on a rock that was at the edge of the bank. Stein did so at the same time, and put his next to Spirit's. He walked back behind Spirit as his partner took his shirt off.

As he set it down on the rock, he turned around to see Stein take his off, and instantly notice the scar. Now he knew why he said "another"; he didn't need to be told.

He saw the large scar that went from the bottom of his abdomen to the top of his chest. Of course, he had a lot of questions floating around in his head. He was confused to no end. But he didn't have to ask any.

Stein saw how Spirit was staring at him, looking both horrified and confused. So he decided he would explain. That would at least get the other question that he had to answer for his punishment out of the way.

"My dad did it." Spirit just looked completely shocked.

"How? Why?" Stein decided he would tell the entire story as to avoid any confusion.

"Well.. a while ago, you know the day when we could finally do witch hunter?"

"Yeah.." He seemed like he could barely talk.

"When I came home that day, I wanted to see him do another dissection. So I went back into his lab and asked if I could. He said I could, but told me to watch one he was doing later that night; as he was already in the middle of one when I walked in. So I just waited in my room and read until he came to get me. He had me go into the dining room, and had me drink something. I was really confused as to why he did that, but I know now.

"He started talking to me, he appeared to be very glad that I wanted to watch him, and I started to become very tired. Before I knew it, I had fallen alseep right there with the glass in my hand, and my dad was still talking to me." At this point, Spirit seemed more confused than ever. He would soon get everything.

"I woke up, and everything was still very foggy. I was in a room, and it was pitch black; there were footsteps coming, but I couldn't really tell who's since they were muffled; and I couldn't move. As everything started to clear up, I realized it was my father coming towards me. I was in his lab, on the operating table." At this, Spirit looked absolutely terrified, which made Stein think he was catching on to what he was about to say.

"He got out his scalpel, but then realized he had forgot something. He made marks on me where he was going to make the incisions, then got his scalpel again. He started to cut where the scar is now. The pain was unbelievable..." He started to drift into thought, but then started to talk again.

"When he was done, I could see all of my organs. He started pointing to them, telling me which was which. Then..." Stein went into brief thought, wallowed, and continued.

"He reached down and started to touch them.." Spirit looked like he wanted to throw up. He couldn't believe someone's father would ever even dare to do this. Now he understood perfectly fine.

"I don't know what happened after that really. I had fainted from the pain. I woke up later in the dark again, and my father wasn't in his lab, so I ran out and into my room as fast as I could. Do you get everything now?"

"Yeah... how could he do that?" Stein started thinking of all the reasons.

"Do you remember what madness wavelengths are?"

"Yeah.. why?"

"Well, my dad experiences them. That is the main reason why he did that. He wanted to teach me something, but they caused him to do it in that way. I don't think he would have otherwise.. he knows what could happen." Spirit had certainly learned a lot about them that day.

"Wow..." He didn't have any words that he could think to say. Stein started waving his hands in front of his partners face, as he seemed to have zoned out a little bit.

"Hey, Spirit. Do you want to get in now?"

"Yeah." They got up and walked over, and stepped into the river. They walked over to a place that was dammed up in silence. They went to here because it would be much deeper, and they could get under more.

"Is there anything else weird about you guys that I should know?" Spirit said this, in a half joking tone.

"Well..." Stein said this, in that kind of tone kids use when they don't want to tell their friend something bad they have done. He hadn't necessarily done anything bad, but he certainly didn't want to tell him.

"What is it now?" Stein looked away for a moment, then looked down at the water that was up to their chests, then looked at Spirit once again.

"I am kind of affected by the madness wavelengths too..." He was never directly told this, but he was more than smart enough to know by now.

"What?" Spirit seemed a little freaked out. But I mean, when you know your parnter could lose it eventually, why wouldn't you be?

"Yep." He knew that Spirit understood him perfectly fine by his reaction, so he didn't feel the need to say it again.

"I thought you were just weird.."

"I am different than most kids anyway." Which this was true; insane or not, he was still different.

"Yeah, that's true." He seemed to be calming down a bit.

"And Spirit, you don't have to worry. Okay?"

"Okay." He trusted his partner that everything would be fine, which in reality, it was. It wasn't like Stein was always crazy as heck; it was just more at some times than others, that's all.

Another good thing is that since they started running, the madness wavelengths went back down. He really couldn't feel them at all anymore. He didn't know what had caused the sudden increase, but it sure did make him wonder. Now he was pretty calm, especially since his punishment was over with.

"Do you ever worry about your dad doing anything to you again?" For the first time, he didn't get tense when his dad was mentioned.

"No, not really anymore. I did a little bit at first; but now I realized he won't do anything, I mean he hardly even leaves his lab anymore. My mother really won't even let him get near me."

"Well I can see why. He touched your organs for Death's sake!"

Stein thought, "You don't have to remind me, it's not like I would just forget." But he didn't say it. "In a way, I am not all that surprised that he did it, though. And it was partially my fault for even asking him."

"You may have asked him, but you didn't expect him to do that."

"I certainly didn't. You should have seen me when I woke up.. both times really."

"I can only imagine how you reacted. You are generally calm and expressionless, but that would have to freak even you out."

"It did more than that." He thought of all of the nightmares he had from it, and all of the ways it affected him. Lucky for him, everything was starting to go back to normal; better than before, really.

Since they weren't hot from running anymore and the water wasn't exactly the warmest, Spirit started to shiver. It's kind of surprising that Stein didn't first, as he has the least amount of body fat out of the two. Stein noticed this, and was feeling a little cold himself.

"Do you want to head back now?" He asked. Spirit seemed like he was in agreement, and shook his head up and down as he held onto his arms like people always do when they are in cold water. It also didn't help that the sun was starting to set, and everyone knows that this makes the air outside considerably colder.

They got out and let themselves dry in the air as much as they could before heading back, which actually made them a lot colder. Their pants were still wet, but they at least took their shirts, shoes, and socks off before getting in; this all seemed to help to some degree.

Don't forget they had at least five miles to go before they got back, so they wouldn't want to go slow. They didn't run, though, as they were already starting to feel a little sore from it and were still exhausted.

They could tell that the sun was setting, and the air was rather nice for just walking. The bad thing about the woods when it starts to get dark out is the mosquitoes. So they started moving a little faster to avoid getting bit. It's really annoying to get bit, and very itchy as well. No kid wants that.

They started getting a little closer to Stein's house when they both heard something coming from the distance. They could see it coming: a boy that appeared to be the same age as them. He was riding one of those bikes that boys always like to use to impress people; the ones that are way too small for them.

The thing about him being there, was that he wasn't supposed to. Remember, Stein's family owned this section of the woods. This, of course, made Stein somewhat upset. Nobody ever went back there, so it actually suprised him a bit.

He got closer and closer, and appeared to have seen Stein and Spirit. He slowed down when he got to them.

"What are you doing back here?" Stein immediately asked.

"Riding on the trail. Why?" The boy seemed to think it was no big deal; perhaps he didn't know he was off his own section of land.

"This isn't your trail."

"Yeah, I know." So, he did know. Stein didn't like this kid at all, to be perfectly honest. He had heard him before when he was closer to his house, and he was very annoying. He was one of those "punks", and he would prove it to everyone here soon.

"Then get off." He wanted to end this as quickly as he could, as it was starting to get darker out, and he wanted to be back before the light was completely gone.

The kid got off his bike, and basically threw it to the side. He walked over to Stein and got right up to his face; he barely even noticed that Spirit was there at this point. When he got up close, he said something.

"Make me." He was going to rue that.

Stein could feel himself getting more and more agitated every second that kid breathed in his face. It wasn't just the madness, though. Anyone would get irritated when dealing with a kid like this one, it's impossible to avoid. Stein tried to stay calm, no matter how badly he wanted to teach this kid a lesson.

Spirit could see how hard he was trying, and he was glad that he could stop himself from doing anything to the kid. See, he was right; he did have things under control. Well, for now.

Stein didn't say or do anything for a minute, so the kid said something.

"Are you going to do anything? Or are you too afraid?"

"No, asswipe. I am giving you a chance to leave first." He wanted to make sure the kid knew he wasn't afraid of him. If anything, he was more afraid of himself.

"And what if I don't?" The kid got a little closer, and they were basically touching now. Stein did his best to contain himself.

"You don't want to know what." He was thinking about how he could use soul force on him right then and there. Also, that his weapon was standing right there with him. That kid better be careful to not annoy him much more.

"Yeah, I do."

"You do?" He could feel the madness wavelengths increase a little, and it was getting harder to keep himself from completely pounding this kid into the ground. Spirit could tell; even by the way he was standing. He figured that if anything did happen, he could try and break them apart, but he knew he would have to be careful.

"That's what I said." Stein tried harder and harder.

"Stein, just back away," Spirit called over to him, trying to avoid something before it even starts.

"No, let's see what he can do," the punk said to him in response, wanting just the opposite.

"Are you sure you want to see?" Spirit called to him.

"For the last time, yes." This kid seemed like he was extremely annoyed as well, but it was nowhere close to what Stein felt.

"Stein, just try not to hurt him too bad. Okay?" He was starting to hate this kid as well. What was the problem in scaring the kid a bit? Stein would just have to keep himself somewhat controlled.

"I can try," he said this, cracking his knuckles as he did so. From the way they kept asking him if he wanted to see or not, and the look Stein was currently giving him, the kid was feeling very nervous; but he did his best to not show it.

"Come on." The kid tried to move it along as fast as he could. The ominous look coming from Stein was starting to really freak him out.

"You asked for it," Stein said this as he took a step back, pulled his arm back, and punched the kid as hard as he could in the nose. By the noise it made, he might have broke it.

The kid put his hand up to his nose, pulling it back to see blood was coming out now. Before he could even say anything, Stein went after him again. This time he punched him in the jaw, hard enough that he was going to have a nasty bruise. This kid didn't think he was that strong judging by how he looked.

He quickly shot his wavelength into the kid as hard as he could, sending him into the tree that was not far behind him. The tree was one of those tiny, little things, and appeared to have snapped a bit. Not surprising though; if anything he would have expected it to have fallen over all together.

This kid was about done with Stein, but he didn't feel the same way. He walked up to where he was sitting on the ground, grabbed his shirt and pulled him up a bit. He punched the kid in the nose once again. How painful would that be? Just imagine!

He went to see what would happen if he shot his wavelength directly into the kids head when Spirit came up to them. Before he could do anything, Spirit touched his friend on the back.

"Come on. I told you to not hurt him too bad." Stein released his grip on the kid slightly.

"I am going to teach him to not mess with me again."

"Stein, I think you have already done that," he said this, based on how the kid was shaking and trembling. Stein realized just how much he had done to the kid, and let go of him.

"Leave. Now." He said to the kid, pointing to the left. The kid quickly got up as fast as he could, in that amount of pain at least, and got on his bike. He peddled as hard as he could, getting out of there right away. He definitely learned his lesson.

"Now I know that if we are in an alley or something, I won't have to be afraid if you're around." Spirit didn't think he was going to go that far, but at least Stein proved that he could defend himself against idiotic teenagers.

"Not exactly," Stein said this, earning a confused look from Spirit. Stein just looked at him with a face, then he realized. Spirit realized that sometime Stein could even end up attacking him.

"Oh.. yeah. I forgot." Stein didn't really say anything as he watched the kid go out of sight. It was actually starting to get fairly dark, so they needed to get moving.

"Do you want to keep going?" Spirit asked his partner.

"Yeah." He looked over at Spirit, then they both started back on their way home.

Stein knew that his mother wouldn't mind too much if they were back a little bit late, but if it got too late she would start to worry. They only had a couple miles, so it won't be much longer until they were home if they don't mess around; which they never did do.

They walked the rest of the way home in almost complete silence; besides the noises coming from birds flying out of trees and the occasional exchange of words, but that wasn't often at all. They didn't exactly seem to mind either.

When they were walking through his backyard the sun had just set, so it looked like they got back just in time. His mother wasn't worried, and actually rather happy that they were gone so long. It meant that they were actually doing stuff, she didn't know what, but it was stuff. I seriously doubt she would be very happy if she knew Stein had broke a kids nose and caused him internal damage, along with some bruises as well.

When they got to Stein's room, he was the first one to say something.

"If you want to shower you can go first."

"Okay, thanks." After he said this, he grabbed out a fresh pair of clothes and went into the bathroom.

Stein just stayed in his room and read like he always did. He had finished the book on the human digestive system a while ago, and had started one on the anatomy of all of the bones.

He had a sudden craving to do a dissection, but of course he couldn't do that right now: he didn't have any subjects, and certainly couldn't go get one; also because Spirit was over. So he just had to try his best to ignore it and keep reading.

Once Spirit was completely dry, except for his hair of course, and dressed, he came back to Stein's room. He got up from his bed and went to drab clothes so he could get in, but Spirit stopped him for a minute.

"Hey, Stein." As he said this the gray-haired boy turned his head to look at him, making a noise that sounded like "Hm?" as he did so.

"I heard that weapon-meister partners often move in together when training."

"And?"

"I was just wondering if you would want to. You seem like you are kind of bothered by your family, and also that way we could train outside of school a lot more often. You also won't have to get new furniture for here." He said the last part looking over at his little pile of stuff.

Stein stood there for a minute not saying anything, and it was making Spirit anxious. He could tell by the way he looked; so he waited a little bit longer before answering him, just to get more of a reaction out of him; and, it had worked just like he wanted it to.

"Sure." He said this, thinking about how he wouldn't be around his dad or mom anymore, how he would actually have some furniture when he moves in, and how he could probably do dissections whenever he wanted.

"Good. I will talk to the person at the school that deals with that stuff."

"Okay." Stein said this as he walked out of his room. It felt weird not having to unlock his door; he even tried to, but realized that it wasn't locked. He had just always done it, so it had become a habit over time.

Spirit noticed this, and couldn't help but laugh to himself. He thought it was rather strange that he always did this, just as he found it strange that he had so little things. He looked at the pile again, seeing things that were meant for science, and not really much of anything else. He would honestly die of boredom if he had just that. But of course, they really didn't have the same interests.

Spirit thought about how he might be able to understand more about this kid once they were living together. He was a different and confusing kid, but he liked him. He wasn't rude or anything, just not as open as everyone else.

It had actually been Mr. Collins' idea for them to move in together. He wanted Spirit to watch him for him after school. He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling that something wasn't right at home; and he had been right, as Spirit knows now.

"Hey, Spirit." Mr. Collins said as he jogged down the hall to catch up with Spirit, who was currently going to meet up with Stein before they left for Austria.

"Oh, hello, Mr. Collins."

"Have you ever heard of the students moving in with each other?" Spirit gave him a confused look, but responded very shortly after.

"No, I haven't. Why?"

"I think you and Stein should consider doing that. I have a feeling that something isn't right at his house; I need you to watch over him."

"Uhh, sure thing.. but why?" He was actually quite confused. Why did he need to watch over his partner?

"Just, can you please do this for me? And I don't want you to tell Stein that it was my idea. If he asks, just say you heard it from another student. Do you think you can do that?"

"Uhh, yeah. I will ask him about it."

"Thank you, Spirit. I really appreciate you doing this." So when Spirit said he would talk to people at the school that deal with that stuff, he meant Mr. Collins.

He had no clue what to do, so he just leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He was actually fairly tired: this was from going on their first mission, doing extra training, and running 5 miles and walking 5 back. That was a lot of work for one day! Especially compared to just having to do regular training like he always did.

After a few minutes, he started to relax, and then fell asleep.

Something they didn't know, was what happened when Stein and him were talking. His mother was alseep in her room, and his dad had actually came out of his lab for the first time in a few days (he has a bathroom connected to it, if you were wondering).

He was standing at Stein's door, listening to their conversation. He was trying to keep himself from falling down, and was also trying to keep himself from laughing so they didn't hear him; which he actually succeeded in doing both of those things.

He needed something to dissect, but luckily he had enough control to not go in there. Instead, he just listened to his son and his friend. He never heard him talk anymore, and kind of missed him a bit, too. But he never let himself go near him, even if his wife would allow him. He just figured he would be safer that way.

He could tell that Stein was doing to leave the room, so he wobled his way through the hallway, slightly leaning against the wall as he did so. Stein almost saw him, but he got in just in time. He shut the door as quietly as he could, laughing and dropping to the ground after he did so.

Stein could hear, but it wasn't anything different compared to how he was lately, so he just ignored it and went into the bathroom.

He finished and dried off, just like Spirit had. He came back to his room, walking in to see Spirit laying down asleep, curled up on the bottom of his bed.

Stein was debating whether he should just leave him at the bottom, or if he should move him to the couch. In the end, he thought that it might be best to take him to the couch since he could have a nightmare and end up kicking him or screaming or something like that in the middle of the night. Spirit didn't need to see and or feel that.

He picked up his partner in a way that wouldn't wake him up, and started to take him out to the living room. It sure is a good thing that Stein was strong, as the hallways were fairly long; and it wouldn't be very good if he were to drop him on the floor.

He sat him down on the couch, and stood there for a few seconds looking at him, shaking his head as he did so. He went back into his room, and was feeling quite tired himself, to be honest. He also "fought" that one kid, so there's that as well. He didn't actually get tired often, so he figured he would enjoy it and just relax for once.

He got into bed and got under his comforter, feeling his muscles start to loosen up a bit. He actually kind of jumped as he felt this; ever since he felt that similar feeling when his dad had drugged him, every time he would start to relax like that he got startled. He then realized that it was something natural, and started to feel it again.

He closed his eyes, and before he knew it, he was sound asleep. His dad could tell by the way his soul felt, and the same for Spirit as well.

He slipped out of his lab in the same fashion he did the last time, keeping his balance as well as he could. He saw Spirit sleeping on the couch when he got to the living room, and he went over and picked him up. This was extremely hard considering he could barely keep himself up, but he managed.

He started down the hallway to his lab, and Spirit woke up when they were halfway down it. He went to scream at the sight of the tall, grinning man; but Franken covered his mouth with his hand and used a pressure point on him. He was out cold once again.

He brought him into his lab and set him down in a chair. No, there would be no dissections tonight; only a fright or two. He felt some sanity come over him for a bit, the most he had felt in a long time. So he went over to his desk and started researching, leaving the kid leaning over in the chair. Though he knew what he was doing better than before, he still had the same intentions.

He did stuff on the computer until Spirit awoke, jerking up in the chair as he realized where he was. He would have tried to run out, but the door was shut; and he could tell it was locked, although there was very little light.

Spirit could hear footsteps coming from behind him and got very tense, then saw the man walk around to meet the front of him.

"Hello, Spirit. I heard you and Stein are moving in together." He said this as he looked down at the kid. Spirit thought "How did he know?", but quickly responded with something else.

"Yes, sir, we are."

"Look, there is one thing I need you to do." As he said this, he could feel the madness coming back, and he began to feel like he had before.

"What is it?" Spirit said this, noticing a slight difference in how Franken was standing.

"I... need you to watch over Stein." He was trying to keep the laughter in. "And make sure.. that nothing happens to him.. And if you ever even think about hurting him-" he said this part as he walked to the right side of the boy, pulling out a scalpel that was in his pocket. Spirit instantly started shaking. He put it up to the boy's throat, and pressed the side, flat part of the blade that you can see your reflection in like a mirror (the part that couldn't cut him) against his skin. "you will regret it." As he said this last part, he dragged the scalpel across. At the angle it was at, the sharp part was just barely making contact with the boy's skin; but it was enough that it made a very small slit, and a couple tiny drops of blood started down his throat.

A short giggle let out, but he coughed into his hand as he walked in front of the boy again. Spirit couldn't make any sense of what was going on, and now there was a stinging pain coming from the slight incision the man had just made.

"I won't do anything to him, I promise." He tried to keep his cool and not start screaming or anything like that.

"I don't believe it." Franken said this as he stared at the blood on the blade of the scalpel, seeming to be almost transfixed by it. This, of course, creeped Spirit out to no end.

"Why? I would never want anything bad to happen to him, let alone have me be the one to do it." Franken laughed.

"How do you expect me to just believe you? Anyone can lie, it's a very easy thing to do; that's probably why everyone does it all the time."

"I am not lying to you, sir." Spirit tried to ignore how uncomfortable he was feeling. Stein's father just laughed some more, then there was a faint screaming that could be heard from outside of the room. A large grin spread across his face as he heard this.

Spirit knew who's scream that was. It was Stein's. He had begun to have a nightmare; one about dissections, yet again. It was that his father was dissecting him, much like the last time. The thing that was different was that his mother was there, watching and laughing at the whole thing.

Spirit had already forgot that he had nightmares, and automatically assumed that it was something his father had done to him. I mean, once he had touched his sons organs, there goes all trust that was once there.

"What did you do to him?!" Spirit said this, sounding very concerned for his parnter.

He giggled. "Nothing..." He said this as few more giggles came out while he was carving shapes that looked like eyes into his own skin. The grin across his face wasn't exactly convincing. Spirit jumped out of the chair, as there was nothing keeping him down, and ran to the door.

Apparently ever since the incident, there had been some new locks installed. It was designed to keep the man in his lab during night time, but he figured out how to get past the locks. Only the clever and oh so sadistic Franken knew how to open the door, so Spirit could not get it opened on his own.

Franken continued to carve away; and as I said ealier, there would be no dissections. Lines being cut into skin just enough to make blood come out, is certainly not a dissection. Spirit started banging on the door, still hearing Stein scream behind the noises he was making and the quiet giggles. Although they were quiet, there was still something very eerie and unsettling about them.

Spirit turned to the man, yelling "Open this door right now!" He didn't even notice the boy had talked to him, and was lost in his own little world, oblivious to his surroundings other than the scalpel. Spirit turned back to the door and began frantically trying to open it, but it was to no avail. He tried and tried and failed and failed.

He went back to banging the door, but Franken realized that it would wake his wife. If she found him keeping the boy with blood coming from his throat locked in here, scalpel still in his hands, he would most likely get sent away just as she said would happen.

So he walked up to Spirit, using a different pressure point this time, and when the boy had his hand against the door, he slid to the floor. Franken did just the same.

"I guess he wasn't lying." He said this, hysterical laughter coming out at the end, echoing with the screaming from his son.