Man was I lazy with this one... I waited so long to start, but it's done. I actually wrote the beginning scene at like 7:00 A.M. (6 hours earlier than I usually get up on days that I have break), due to by brother coming in and waking me up at 5:50 to look for Easter eggs. -_- But I thank him for the extra time I got from it. Enough of me... Read. Now.
Not Strange, Just Different
Chapter 15 A Bet Beneficial to More Than One
He stood at his dissection table, a single lamp being the only source of light in the room. His hands held onto the edge of the table, while his head was tilted down, hair covering his face. What he could hear was the noise in his head, and a thousand voices combining.
His hand began to twitch, so he tightened it into a fist, and put it down onto the table as if he was punching it, but paused after making contact with the object. After a bit, he began to breathe heavier and heavier until the sound of it became very loud.
Earlier in the day, they all had just sat around and watched TV, made dinner, and watched more TV afterward. He went into his room to read when Spirit wanted to go to sleep, and stood at the door listening to what Mr. Collins was saying to the boy. He heard him say that he was fine, and that he could trust him now. After hearing that, he realized the real reason why he had come to see them.
As the night went on, the madness wavelengths had seemed to have begun to get stronger. The boy had broken from reality a few times on and off while reading, but it wasn't anything like the previous day. Throughout the night, the craving to cut something open also got stronger.
His ability to resist the temptation was beginning to lessen. He made his other hand into a fist, clenching them both then bringing them down to his side. As his lips formed a grin, he clenched his teeth. A single giggle came out.
He began trying to think of a reason not to slice the boy open, but was having trouble coming up with one. This time since the madness wavelengths were far less strong, he would be able to actually do more. If he got himself to stay calm enough, there could actually be more of a purpose to all of it.
After deciding that doing a dissection tonight was a good idea, he grabbed one of his needles and went to the door. After opening it, he went down the hall and saw Mr. Collins sleeping on the couch, his back turned to the boy. Making sure to be quiet, he went down the hall to Spirit's room.
When he got in there, he saw Spirit sleeping in a bean bag chair with his head tilted back, controller still in his hands from when he was playing games. After walking over to him, he carefully and slowly took the controller out of his hands, laying it down on the console making sure to be as quiet as possible.
Sticking his hands in his pocket, he withdrew the needle from it, holding it close to his face to look at the sharp point. He reached down and inserted the needle into the boy's skin, pressing down onto the plunger, releasing the chemicals into him. He pulled the needle out, and stuck it into his pocket.
When looking down at the redhead, he could hear him breathing. After standing for a few seconds, he reached down and picked up the boy. He walked out of the room and went down the hall, stopping to readjust him at the end.
Mr. Collins turned to face Stein, and brought his hand up to itch his nose. Stein quickly took a few steps back the hall, making sure he wasn't visible. He looked around the corner, and saw the man look around. After mumbling a bit, he turned back around.
Once hearing him snore a few times, he went the rest of the way down the hall, going to his room. After walking in, he kicked the door shut behind him, and brought the kid over to the table. When setting him down, he held his head so it wouldn't hit the metal. Just like the night before, he slipped his shirt off and let it drop to the ground.
After positioning him, he strapped him down to the table, then turned on the overhead lights. He grabbed his scalpel, wiping it off from last time.
He brought the scalpel down onto the boy's skin, sliding the blade across in a smooth line. Blood began to pour out onto his skin, a sticky, deep red.
Stein sat the scalpel down and grabbed two glass slides, setting one down next to Spirit. With his free hand, he got a pipette. Bringing it down to the blood, he squeezed the bulb and let go, allowing the liquid to fill.
He released it onto the first glass slide, then after setting the pipette down he grabbed the other slide. When he pressed the second slide down onto the other, the drop spread out further from being compressed. Bringing the slides up to his face, he looked at them in the light, admiring the beautiful liquid.
Next he sat them down next to the table and grabbed his scalpel. Dragging it down further he extended the incision, seeing more blood flow out. When muscle was exposed, he slid his fingers on it, feeling the texture and moisture. All of it was so indescribably invigorating, exhilarating, and pleasurable.
Cutting through the different layers of muscle, the boy's organs became exposed. Stein began making mental notes of which was which just for the fun of it, then started thinking of which one he should examine first. He decided on the stomach.
The stomach has three layers of muscle: an outer longitudinal layer, a middle circular layer, and an inner oblique layer. He cut through the circular and oblique layer, even more blood seeping out an onto the boy's skin. When the organ was completely open, he could see the mucosal lining, which is thrown up into folds called rugae.
With his hand he stretched out the flexible lining, feeling his fingers slide across it due to it being extremely moist from blood and gastric juices. He thought of how all of this was composed and formed, and was in absolute amazement. He was ecstatic, and in a state of complete awe.
Next he looked at the different valves. There were two of them: the first one, the gastroesophageal valve, connecting the stomach to the esophagus; the second one, the pyloric valve, connecting the organ to the small intestines. He wrapped his index finger around the pylorus and brought it up slightly, causing the organs to lift a little, light glistening off them.
His finger slid off, and he decided to move onto something else. He brought the scalpel down on the gallbladder, cutting through the layers of tissues and cell formations. After cutting through the epithelium, he could see the inside of the organ.
Since this organ was a lot smaller than the stomach, there was far less to be seen; nevertheless, the composition and purpose of the gallbladder was still highly intriguing. He could see all of the ducts that extended from it and connected to surrounding organs.
Stein sat the scalpel down for a minute, and brought his hand to the heart. He lightly touched it, feeling it pulse, and the muscles powerfully contract. The feeling of this sent shivers down his spine, and gave him great pleasure.
He wiped his hands off his lab coat, and started digging through his supplies. After pulling out a petri dish, he sat it on the end of the table as to avoid getting blood on it, for a good majority of it was covered in the thick substance at this point.
Once he took the lid off it and stuck it next to the bottom portion of the dish, he grabbed his scalpel and began to cut through some of the muscle from his abdomen wall. Cutting a little portion off, he picked up a pair of forceps and stuck the muscle into the petri dish, shutting the lid and sticking the dish next to the glass slides afterward.
He placed the forceps at the end of the table to be cleaned later, and felt the madness wavelengths increase. It wasn't too bad, so he just continued. After realizing that the needle was still in his pocket, he reached in to grab it. When taking it out, he held it up and read the label on it.
The madness wavelengths increased yet again, and the noise in his head began to get louder. Just as this happened, he realized that he had grabbed the wrong needle, so the dosage wasn't going to suffice long enough, seeing as he still had a lot to do before he was done.
He went to put the needle away and grab another that he would use to keep Spirit unconscious for the remainder of the dissection, when the needle he had in his hand began to feel extremely hot and started burning him. He dropped it onto the floor and held onto his hand, wincing at the pain.
When the needle hit the ground, he realized that wasn't what was heating up, but it was his hand itself. The burning continued and started to get worse, causing him to drop to his knees and have to hold back a scream.
He looked up at Spirit, and saw that he was starting to move a little. The burning stopped and he stood up, walking back to the table. The wavelengths increased once again, and he grabbed onto the edge of the table, blood covering his hands again.
The boy's eyes began to open, and he felt a sharp pain coursing through him from the incisions that had been made. When they were full opened, he saw Stein looming over him holding onto the edge of the table, a grin starting to slowly form. As he realized that he was completely open and exposed, and what exactly was going on, his eyes got extremely wide.
He was going to scream, but right before he did Stein stuck his bloody hand over his mouth. The grin extended across his entire face, and quiet laughter began to come out. Spirit began to shake and sweat.
Stein opened his eyes, realizing that he had been dreaming. He looked over at the clock.
6:47 A.M.
Spirit had woken up a little earlier than usual, but he didn't necessarily mind. He had been up since 6:23 A.M., and decided to use his free time to play games. First he had gotten ready, then started playing his games.
When he was in the middle of a mission, the game had frozen, and so he began to bang on the console a few times to try to get it to work. After the fourth hit, a ringing noise started coming out of the TV, so he just unplugged the console and decided he was done for the morning.
After taking the game out and sticking it in its case, he went down the hall to Stein's room. When getting there, he saw that he had just woken up.
"Remember to not put your coat on this morning," Spirit said to Stein.
"I will make sure I do that."
After saying this, Stein could tell that he was thinking about his punishment, hoping that he didn't lose. The look of disgust really gave it away, and pleased Stein.
"Do I really have to dissect a frog?" Spirit asked in a whining voice.
"If you lose the bet, yes, you do."
"What if I come up with something better?"
"If you can come up with something better, we can use that. But we can't just think of a new one for you and Mr. Collins; we also have to come up with one for me."
"Deal. Anything as long as I don't have to cut open anything," Spirit said this, walking away beginning to try to think of a better punishment.
Stein got up out of bed and changed into his regular clothes, almost grabbing his lab coat out of habit. After he pulled away, he stood for a second trying to decide what to do with his hands now that he can't stick them in his coat pockets. He just put them in his pants pockets, walking over to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
When he got back, he went over to his dissection table. Looking through every container and drawer, he began to make sure that the dissection really had been a dream. Everything was where it had been before, he still had the same amount of needles, and after looking through everything he concluded that he really had been dreaming.
Spirit walked in, seeing Stein rummaging through his supplies.
"What are you looking for?" the boy asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice.
"Oh, nothing," Stein said this, shutting the door to one of the drawers. He walked over to Spirit, pointing out to the hallway.
"You ready to go now?" Spirit's eyebrows raised, and he paused a couple seconds before saying anything.
"Yeah, we should probably get going," Spirit said this, grabbing the boy's coat so he would have the option of giving in and wearing it.
They both went down the hall and out the door. As they started going up the road, Spirit began trying to think of another punishment.
"What if-" There was a brief pause. "No…"
He did this multiple times as they walked down the road, seeming to have a lot of trouble coming up with something half decent.
"How about if you lose, you don't talk for a whole week. And if I lose, you still don't talk," Stein said this, annoyed at the boy's aloud thinking.
"No… That isn't good," Spirit said this, half lost in thought, being enough so that he didn't fully comprehend what Stein had said. Stein sighed when the boy began to go off again.
"I've got it!"
"This should be great," Stein said this, a very caustic tone showing in his voice.
"What? I do. If you lose, then you have to take Marie out on a date." Stein stopped walking. "And it has to be like a real date, not just hanging out or anything." Stein stood for a moment in thought.
"Alright. I'll take Marie on a date, but if you lose you have to go an entire week without flirting with girls."
"You're kidding," Spirit said this in a tone that showed he didn't want to believe he was being serious.
"Nope. Let's just say you have to talk to them the same way I do. No flirting, no interest, nothing." Spirit froze, and his face began to go pale slightly. Then he thought of having to dig around in the frog's guts.
"Fine," Spirit said in a stubborn sort of tone, "anything to get me out of the dissection."
"You're such a baby."
"I am not!" he exclaimed. "I'm so sorry I don't like to cut open and practically torture living things."
"Suit yourself," Stein said this, thinking of last night's extremely vivid and pleasurable dream dissection, almost wishing it had been real.
They got to the academy and started up the stairs, seeing kids standing at the top. When seeing Stein, they all went pale; from having heard the rumors about what happened during the fight in class the other day, along with the screw sticking through his head, they all started making comments on how he had finally lost it.
Stein heard them, and decided to have a little fun with them. He turned the screw three times, watching them all cringe each time. When they stared, he glared and stuck his arms out at them saying, "Boo." They all flinched. To top it all off, he made himself form a grin, and forced out a few giggles.
At hearing this, some of the students ran into the academy, while others got stiff and began to sweat. Stein just smirked, enjoying the reaction he got out of them. Spirit rolled his eyes, not surprised that he had scared them like that.
When getting into the academy, more kids started talking about him. He left these ones alone, and just walked past them while they stared. As he went down the hall, a few kids went to the very side to stay out of his way. It was then that he wished he had his scalpel; for he knew that the instant they saw it, they would all go running for their lives.
When they got to their classroom, Mr. Collins got out of his chair and went over to the boys.
"So I see you haven't given up yet."
"Of course not. It's only been barely two hours."
"Oh, and the punishments have been changed," Spirit said, looking at Mr. Collins.
"Have they?" he asked. "What are they now?"
"If he loses," Stein said this, pointing to his right to Spirit with his thumb, "he has to go a full week without flirting with any girls."
"Ooh. That's gonna be rough for him."
"I don't even want to imagine it… But wait till you hear Stein's!"
"What is it?" the man asked.
"He has to ask Marie out on a date," Spirit said. Mr. Collins instantly started laughing.
"Stein? On a date?" He laughed even more.
"Yes, it's very funny," Stein said this in a sarcastic manner.
"Sorry, I just can't imagine you as the type that goes on dates."
"Neither can I, but Spirit came up with it."
"Why did you even come up with new punishments?" Mr. Collins asked Spirit.
"He was desperate to get out of the dissection," Stein answered for him.
"Should have guessed," Mr. Collins said, smirking at Spirit.
"Come on! Why do you guys think it's so wimpy?"
"I never said it was wimpy. In fact, I know I wasn't really looking forward to it, either. Speaking of me, do I even have a punishment anymore?"
"Oh yeah, I guess we never thought about that. Looks like you're off the hook," Spirit said this, trying to think of how he forgot to give him one.
"Sweet," Mr. Collins said this, then walked back over to the desk since class was about to start.
Stein and Spirit walked over to the desks, then went up to a corner that didn't have many people around it. After they sat down, Marie and Kami came in. They looked around to find where the boys were sitting, then started coming over after spotting them.
When they got up to where they were, Stein moved over since he knew Marie would want to sit by him. Kami sat down to the left of Spirit, and wrapped her arms around him as to hug him.
"I missed you yesterday," Kami said this, burying her head in the curve of his neck.
"I missed you too," Spirit said this, and looked over to see Stein roll his eyes.
"Oh, come on. If you actually cared about someone, you would miss them too."
"Sure," Stein said this, opening to the page of his book that he had currently been on. Marie looked over at him, realizing that he hadn't been wearing his coat like he usually did.
"No coat today?" she asked this in her usual cheerful tone.
"Nope, not today." As he said this, she saw that Spirit had it with him. She assumed that it was just for if he wanted to wear it, which it actually was.
"I like it. It's a nice look for you, Franken."
"Thank you, Marie," Stein said this, trying to be polite.
As he focused on the words on the pages of his book, she focused on his muscles. From all the training he did over the years, he was very well built, and although he was thin, he was still very strong. Marie couldn't help but stare.
The muscles on his arms were very well formed, and she could slightly see his abs through his shirt. She wanted to feel and slide her hands along his arms, but didn't knowing that he wouldn't exactly like that.
"Okay class, today we are going to start a new lesson. You guys have been preparing for this for the last week, getting yourselves ready to be able to do this lesson. Stein, Spirit, you have already learned this, so today will be a study hall for you two."
"Okay," Spirit said to Mr. Tredway as Kami took her arms off him.
"I want everyone to get with their partners." After he said this, everyone began getting with their partners. Stein sat back for Marie to get by, and Kami got up to go to the front of the room.
When they got down to the bottom, everyone was with their partner. Marie and Kami were as well since over the years they both had switched, and were now partners. One day when practicing, they found that they worked better together than their other partners, and so they switched.
Stein read throughout the whole lesson while Spirit watched Kami. At one point he had begun tapping his fingers on the desk, but after a bit Stein reached out and pushed his fingers down. Spirit yelled out from him pressing too hard, and began sucking on his fingers.
Marie kept glancing up at Stein, taking notice of his showing muscles. During one of the times she looked up, she could see that he had goose bumps on his arms from being cold. Every now and then she would see him even start to shake a bit.
Spirit looked over to see this and smirked.
"Do you want this?" Spirit asked, pointing to the boy's coat.
"No, I'm fine without it." Stein said this, continuing to read.
"Are you sure? You'd be nice and warm," Spirit said this in a coaxing tone, picking up the coat and hold it out to Stein.
"I'm sure. I think I can handle being cold for a bit," Stein said this, reminding himself that he didn't want to have to take Marie out on a date, glancing at Spirit for a second. It wasn't that he dreaded her or anything, in fact he found her very kind and pleasant to be around, despite her extremely cheerful and girly personality; he just didn't exactly take pleasure in going on dates.
When class ended, Stein and Spirit headed down to the front of the class to meet up with Mr. Collins. They saw Mr. Tredway talking to Marie and Kami, and wondered what it was about. They both seemed to be happy about whatever it was, so that only made them even more curious.
Mr. Tredway walked over next to Mr. Collins and in front of the two boys.
"These two ladies will be joining you today. I feel that they are progressing enough to start taking lessons from you," he said this, directing his speech to Mr. Collins at the end.
"Good. I have been hoping you would say that," Mr. Collins said this, going to the girls after. "I am looking forward to teaching you two."
"We are glad to have you as an instructor, Mr. Collins," Kami said this, obviously joyed to be moved into special lessons.
"Well, let's go get started then," Mr. Collins said this, walking off and past the boys.
They all started following him out of the room, Marie on Stein's right, and Spirit to his left. Marie was extremely excited that she would now be with Stein for every class of the day; and Kami was excited for the same reason, but because of Spirit, and also from being in a more advanced class.
When they got out to the spot in the woods that they usually use for training, they saw that Azusa and Sid were already there. Sid still had stitches on his neck, the line of sutures forming a square that was missing a side. The boy was turned to face Azusa, and when he turned to see Stein his face went pale. Stein smirked.
"Shouldn't he be locked up or something?" Sid asked this, fearful for his own safety, as well as the safety of others.
"No, Sid, and I don't want to hear anymore remarks like that. You're going to have to work with him whether you want to or not. Today we will be working on resonating as a team," Mr. Collins said this, then turned to Marie and Kami.
"We just started a lesson on how to resonate as a team, but you don't need to worry; you haven't really missed anything. I'm glad that you guys joined us at this lesson. Your souls added on will make the resonance much stronger."
"It's a pleasure to be in your class," Marie said, smiling at the man.
"I have a feeling we'll get along well," Mr. Collins said this then turned to face everyone else. "I want the weapons to transform now."
As he said this, Spirit, Marie, and Azusa all transformed, and their meisters naturally caught them.
"Alright, now I need you guys to really focus. Try and feel everyone else's wavelengths. Start resonating with your partner, then try to reach out to the others."
After he said this, they all began resonating with their partners. Stein and Spirit's resonance was the strongest, by far, and then Sid and Azusa's was second with Kami and Marie's following.
"Stein and Spirit, I want you guys to try to reach out to Sid and Azusa first. You think you can do that?"
"Yeah, I'll give it a try," Stein said this, then began trying to feel the couple's wavelength. As he reached out, their souls began to extend, almost like a stream, and connected with the couple's. The resonance instantly became stronger.
"Good. Now, both of you reach out to Kami and Marie. Girls, I want you to just try to keep your own resonance as strong as possible. If you try to reach out to two groups at the same time or try to focus selectively on one, the resonance is likely to break."
The girls just focused on their own resonance, while the others tried to connect with them. As one large stream reached their resonance, they all instantly broke.
"Try again. It's expected for that to happen the first time."
After he said this, they all started resonating again, the same strength differences present. Stein and Spirit reached out to Sid and Azusa, and the resonance got stronger. They tried to connect with the girls again, but when their souls touched they just wouldn't connect.
This is what they did for the remainder of the class, still unable to resonate as a group at the end. Spirit, Sid, and Marie were perfectly fine with not being able to do it, for Mr. Collins said that it wasn't likely that they would be able to at this point. Kami and Azusa were a little upset, because they were just hard workers and liked to do well. Stein, on the other hand, was pissed that he couldn't get it right.
To him, any skill should be easily mastered in no time. Since that is not always the case, he ends up getting really mad at times that he can't quite get something. He wanted to practice more and more until he got it, but he knew there would be no way that the rest of the group would feel the same way.
"We will try again tomorrow, guys. Even though you didn't master the skill, you still did very well for the first day," Mr. Collins said this as he began to lead the group to the academy.
"It was awesome working with someone other than just my partner," Kami said. "No offense, Marie."
"None taken. I really like getting to work with everyone, too," Marie said this, looking at Stein at the end.
When she looked over, she saw him try to stick his hands in his coat pockets out of habit, but then after realizing he stuck them in his pants pockets. She could tell that he was irritated about the lesson, and decided she would try to cheer him up.
"Oh, come on, Franken. It was only our first day! You'll get it soon."
"I better."
"Trust me, I know you will," Marie said this in a soft tone, looking at his eyes that had an almost harsh look to them at the moment.
Stein said nothing, but just kept walking next to the girl. She pouted at her failed attempt, feeling bad that he was always so hard on himself. From having had to try to cheer him up on so many occasions, she knew he wouldn't budge, so she let him be.
When they got to the academy and were about to go to the cafeteria, Mr. Collins called to them.
"See you guys tomorrow. Have a nice day."
"You too!" everyone except Stein yelled in unison.
When they found the table that was the farthest from everyone, they all sat down but Sid kept walking past. He went back over to see Azusa.
"Hey, aren't we going where we usually sit?"
"No, I figured that knowing them better would be helpful in resonating."
Sid stood for a minute, thinking of how much he really didn't want to sit with Stein.
"Fine, we'll sit here," he said this, taking a seat next to the girl.
While everyone got something, Stein pulled out his book and started reading again, trying to get his thoughts off today's lesson.
"You aren't going to get anything?" Marie asked.
"No, I am just going to read," Stein said this, glancing up at the girl for a minute.
"That's not healthy for you, Franken."
"I'll take my chances," he said this, looking back down at the page of his book.
"Suit yourself," she said this, then walked off to join the rest of them.
As he was reading, he could tell that people were looking at him, and could hear them whisper stuff about him. They had learned to do it quietly by now, so he couldn't tell what they were saying, but he had the common sense to know it wasn't anything pleasant.
From the whispering, it was beginning to get harder to concentrate on reading. He hated everyone focusing on him like that, so it got on his nerves, making his temper worse than it already had been from the failed attempts to resonate as a team. Trying to block out every sound, he just kept reading.
As he was sitting, he could hear one kid say something to his friend.
"Hey, watch this," the kid said, then opened up a carton of milk.
Stein could feel his soul get closer to him. Right as he was about to turn to face the kid, he felt milk pour down on his head, dripping onto his face and down onto the pages of his book. Kids started laughing.
As he slowly stood up, and turned to face the kid, now practically looming over him, one kid said, "You're gonna get it now."
"What are you gonna do about it?" the kid asked, beginning to get nervous at the end from seeing the look in his eyes.
As Stein stood there over the kid, trying to keep himself under control, milk still dripping onto his face, he realized his scalpel was in his coat pocket.
"Just one minute," Stein said, holding his finger up to the boy, obvious anger showing in his tone of voice.
He went around the table to grab his coat, then put it on, not caring about losing the bet right now. As milk dropped to the ground, he watched it fall, then stuck his hands in his pockets, loving the habitual feeling. Slowly walking next to the boy, he threw his drenched book onto the table, then turned to face him. He smirked.
Spirit walked away from the lunch line, looking over his shoulder to talk to Sid. When he looked out to the table, he saw Stein drenched, his hand slipping out of his pocket. He quickly sat down his tray, and ran over to the boy. When he got over to him, he was just withdrawing the scalpel from his pocket, and the boy in front of him was beginning to look terrified.
Spirit stood next to Stein, and touched his shoulder.
"Hey, kid, go. Now," Spirit said this to the kid, pointing over to a general direction at his left.
"Okay… I won't mess with him again," the kid said this, panic showing in his voice, then ran off and sat down next to a group of kids.
Every kid in the cafeteria was looking at Stein while he stood there breathing heavily, complete anger showing in his eyes, while he tried to resist the urge to tear into anything around him; Spirit happened to be that thing.
When Stein looked at Spirit, the boy took his hand off his shoulder.
"Calm down. He was just messing with you."
Stein backed up and sat down, shutting his book as he did so. He put his scalpel back in his pocket, and Marie came over with some paper towels. She offered them to him, but he didn't take them.
"You're all wet," she said this as she wiped his face off. She sat down the wet towel and grabbed another, but when she went to dry his hair off he took the towel from her.
"Thank you, Marie, I can get it," he said this, drying off his hair.
He sat down the soaked towel and grabbed another, then began to wipe off his shirt and pants.
"Let me help you," Marie said this, picking up a towel and reaching over to wipe his shirt off.
A drop of milk that was still in his hair dropped onto his nose. She wiped it off and smiled at him. He couldn't help but smile a little, too, and began wiping off the table. She started wiping the table off as well, and then both of them got up to throw out the towels.
When they threw it out, Stein remembered that he lost the bet, and took this opportunity to ask her since no one would be watching. She went to walk back away from the trash can and over to the table, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Marie, I have been thinking lately, and I was wondering if you would like to go out on a date with me." The minute he said this, Marie's face lit up, and she had the biggest smile he had ever seen. She even began to blush slightly, then wrapped her arms around him.
"Yes, of course I would!" she said this, joy oozing out of her. He let her hold onto him, and just smiled at the amount of emotion that was coming out of her.
She stopped hugging him and grabbed onto his one hand, taking the remaining towel out of his other and throwing it out for him. Dragging him behind her, she started off to their table to tell everyone, mainly Kami, what he had just said.
When they went to their table, they passed the kid that had dumped milk on Stein. With his free hand, he smacked the kid upside the head as hard as he could, following Marie as he did so. He smirked at the kid's cry of pain.
As they got to the table, Marie stopped in front of everyone else, swaying her and Stein's arms back and forth very slightly.
"Guess what, guys," she said this with the same smile on her face, looking as if she were about to explode with happiness.
"What?" Spirit asked in a smug tone, knowing exactly what it was that she was about to say.
"Franken and I are going on a date!" she said this, pulling the boy around to where they were previously sitting.
Everyone except for Spirit's face looked shocked.
"That's awesome!" Kami said this, seeming to share some of Marie's joy. "Maybe this means we could start going on double dates." After she said this, she wrapped her arm around Spirit's back.
"Yeah! We have to do that!" Marie said this, clearly thinking it was an excellent idea.
"Yeah, maybe we will have to," Spirit said this to Stein, smirking at him.
Stein just shook his head, realizing that he and Marie were still holding hands. From how happy she was, he figured that even if he tried to get out of her grasp, she probably wouldn't let go. She was even beginning to hold on kind of hard.
"Make sure you search him for chloroform before you guys leave the house," Sid said this, teasing Stein. Azusa smacked him in the arm.
"He is actually showing an interest in something other than science. Leave him alone."
"Alright, but I'm just telling you, Marie. Watch out."
"Oh, shut up, Sid. He won't do anything to me. He's too sweet for that," she said this, smiling at him at the end.
"You never know," Spirit said this, joining Sid just to see if he would react.
"If it would make you feel better, and to make these guys shut up, you can search me all you want."
"It won't be necessary, Franken. Those boys are just idiots. I trust that you won't do anything."
For the rest of break, Marie excitedly chattered while Kami joined her in conversation, Spirit and Sid making remarks every now and then, Azusa basically just listening. As they went to their next class, Marie held onto his hand and smiled just as bright as she had been since he asked her out. When they were going, Mr. Collins saw them together, so he stopped Spirit.
"Looks like he lost," Mr. Collins said as he touched Spirit's shoulder and pulled him back. This startled Spirit, so he turned around holding his arms in front of him as if he were about to karate chop the man.
"Oh, it's you… Yeah, he lost. He did it to get to his scalpel, though."
"What made him want it?"
"This kid was stupid enough to come up behind him and pour milk all over him and his book."
"Oh, Death, what was that kid thinking?" Mr. Collins said this, bringing the palm of his hand up to his forehead.
"I have no clue. He was probably just trying to impress his friends."
"Probably. Now get to class," he said this, trying to make himself sound stern and serious.
"You suck at being stern."
"I know. Just get going already," Mr. Collins said this, pushing Spirit.
Stein and Marie sat down in Mrs. Smith's room next to each other, Kami at Marie's left. When Spirit came in, he sat to the girl's right.
During class, Stein realized that he never did think of where he would take her. After giving it some thought, he had come up with where he would take her. He looked over at her, and she smiled at him, so he smiled slightly back at her, which made her even happier. He didn't understand how she could have possibly been as happy as she was, so her reactions perplexed him a bit.
Spirit wanted to laugh at how he was acting, seeing as how he was smiling back, but held back as to avoid getting punched or having his eyes gouged out. He really didn't want that. Instead he just stuck with shaking his head and listening to the teacher again.
At the end of class, Mrs. Smith saw how Marie grabbed onto Stein's hand again. When they both got down to the bottom, she asked them about it.
"What's this, Franken?"
"He asked me out!" Marie said this, answering for him.
"Did you really?" she asked, seeming to have a slightly hard time believe it, the other half of her just wanting to hear him say it out loud.
"Yes, I really did," Stein said this, reaching up with his free hand to turn the screw three times.
"This has to be the most normal thing I have seen you do."
"I know! He just completely surprised me in the cafeteria. He's such a sweetie," she said this, beginning to drag him to their next class at the end.
After getting to Mr. Reignhardt's class, they listened to his lesson for the day, slightly eager to get out just from having been at school all day. Lucky for them, the class went by unusually quickly.
When they got out and went through the academy doors, Marie looped her arm through his, and he brought her over to the side.
"I never did tell you where we were going."
"Oh yeah, I guess you didn't," she said. "What do you have planned?"
"How about I make it a surprise." As Stein said this, Mr. Collins came over.
"I hate to break you love birds up, but I need to talk to Stein and Spirit," Mr. Collins said this, receiving a glare from the love bird remark.
"I'll come back over when we're done," Stein said this, slipping his arm out of hers.
Stein followed Mr. Collins over to Spirit, glad to finally be able to breathe and have both his arms free. He stuck them in his pocket, enjoying being able to have both rather than just one of them in.
"I know this is on short notice, but there is a mission that you guys have been signed up to go on."
"Where is it?" Spirit asked.
"You'll be going to Liechtenstein. Ha, your name's in it."
"Ha-ha, how funny," Stein said this in a sarcastic tone.
"I know. I'm hilarious, aren't I?"
"Yes, very. You crack me up."
"Glad to entertain you," Mr. Collins said this as he started to walk off.
"Wait, who are we even fighting?" Spirit asked.
"There really was no name, just a location where you could find him. Which reminds me, I need to give you this," Mr. Collins said this, walking back over to give them a paper.
They both looked at it, seeing an address.
"How are we supposed to find him if we don't even know his name?" Stein asked, looking up from the piece of paper which the address was on.
"I've heard about this guy, and trust me when I say you'll know it's him when you see him," he said this, then started to walk off again.
"Could you at least tell us about him then?" Spirit asked.
"Nah, I wanna go home. You'll be fine." As he said this, he continued off.
"Whatever, we'll see when he get there," Stein said this, looking at the paper again.
He handed it to Spirit, then went back over to Marie.
"I have to go on a mission tomorrow, so our date will be Friday night. Does 7 o'clock sound good?"
"Yep, I can't wait!" Marie said this, wrapping her arm around his yet again.
I just hope I didn't make Stein too into the romance stuff. That is what I fear doing the most in the upcoming chapters. I already have the next 3 or so planned out for the most part, so I shouldn't really take too long if work well. I have the weekend starting tomorrow, so I will get time from that. But yeah, let us just hope I don't make the boy get too lovey dovey.