Chiyumi let her steps slow and she fell further and further behind Professor Stein. 'Why? Why do I have to change classes? Why does a total stranger have to be my meister? Why did I even come here to begin with?' Chiyumi stopped walking and slumped against the wall, tears streaming down her face.

"Pull it together, Chimi." Chiyumi's eyes flew open, but instead of seeing the academy hallway like she had anticipated, she was staring into her twin sister's green eyes. "The people outside may be strangers, but they're waiting for you. They want to be your friends. Shouldn't you return their trust?"

Chiyumi, overjoyed at seeing her sister managed to stammer out a, "Yes, of course, you're right Shiyumi." Before throwing her arms around Shiyumi's neck and bursting into tears, "I've missed you so much Shiyu! Please, don't leave me again!"

Professor Franken Stein blinked in shock as Chiyumi called him Shiyumi. He was even more shocked as Chiyumi threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest, sobbing. As gently as he could, he pushed the sobbing girl away from him, only to catch her as she looked at him in shock and pain before fainting.

Chiyumi opened her eyes again to the interior of the DWMA's nurse's office, where she lay on a bed surrounded by ten people. She almost didn't fight off the urge to faint again.

'I'm surrounded by strangers... this isn't good. Come on, Chimi, get up. Run. Flee. It's your only hope.' Chiyumi closed her eyes again, frantically fighting off that urge as well, using Professor Stein's voice as something to anchor to, and tried to focus on what he was saying. It took her a second to understand that he was repeating her name, as if trying to get her attention.

Weakly she turned her head towards him, realizing with a start that the room was empty. Sitting up quickly she collapsed back on the bed, her breath beginning to come rapidly, clearly beginning to hyperventilate. 'Not another panic attack, Chimi. Relax. Deep breaths. You must have been remembering when you were brought in. Not now. Don't breathe so fast."

"You're doing a remarkable job of talking yourself out of the panic attack, Chiyumi." Stein said without opening his eyes. Cracking one open he looked at her out of the corner of it. "Now tell me. For how long have you been having conversations with your dead sister."

Tears ran down her cheeks. "I don't talk to her, Professor. She talks to me... I know she's gone, so I ignore her... but earlier... I could see her... she was right there in front of me... then she was gone..." Looking at Stein she couldn't help but notice his eyes. Almost the same color as Shiyumi's.

"Shiyumi speaks to you?" Stein spun the chair so that he was facing Chiyumi, studying her. Reading her soul, he saw what he was afraid he'd see. There, sitting close to the center of Chiyumi's soul, was a shadow. An image even he had missed the first time. An angry version of Chiyumi, whispering into Chiyumi's ear.

"She warns me, Professor. I ignore her, but she's always right, she always has been. You don't understand! She's dead! It's not her." Chiyumi's hands clenched the sheets and she turned her face away to look out the window, registering that where it had been morning it was now sunset.

"Listen to me, Chiyumi. You have to believe that with all that you are. As long as you refer to the voice that you hear as Shiyumi, you'll always have it. And the one thing that you don't want to live with are voices in your head. Trust me on that one." A smirk played on his face.

"But... how? I know she's gone, but she's there. I don't understand it. I never have been able to." Chiyumi looked back at him. "I killed her... I don't know why she let me. She should have thrown me away, let me rust long before that happened! And we couldn't even stop the man who killed our parents. I killed her and she doesn't even know it..." Tears flowed from her eyes as she whispered, "I don't know what it's like to be alone."

Professor Stein reached up and turned the screw in his head until he felt the resounding clank, and repeated the process, his mind clearing. "Chiyumi, listen to me. You have to accept yourself that Shiyumi is dead. Only then will your soul be free from hers. Do you understand? It's not Shiyumi that you're hurting now. It's you."

Standing, Stein stretched. "It's time I go home. Nygus has requested that you stay here so that you can be observed. However, I spoke with her. You have the option to return to my lab with me instead of staying in the academy alone overnight. We both believed it may be more comfortable for you, knowing your fear of strangers."

Chiyumi thought for a second and wiped away her tears before replying. "I... I think I would like that."

"He's a stranger, Chimi. You can't do this. You can't go to his home. He'll hurt you. Strangers always do. They can't be trusted!"

'Shut up, Shiyu.'

Standing with a bit of assistance from Stein, Chiyumi swayed and blushed.

"What is it, Chiyumi?" Stein asked, his hand on her shoulder to help balance her.

"I haven't eaten today." She said with a laugh.

Stein blinked. "Neither have I. How odd. Well, perhaps a trip for food first before retiring."

Chiyumi smiled. "I would like that."

For the first time in a long time, Chiyumi felt like she was home. The reason why the foreboding, dark lab would feel comforting eluded her. But it didn't matter. This was a safe place. And, she felt like her old self, wandering into Stein's lab while he pulled out the to-go boxes of ramen he had ordered.

Stein walked into see her looking down at some of his more recent experiments, and chose not to interrupt her, turning the screw in his head instead. He stood out of sight as she walked around the lab, her fingers brushing a beaker here, a scalpel there, trailing along the cold metal of the tables. The smile on her face as she took it all in was contagious, and Stein felt himself smirking.

'This is amazing!' Chiyumi thought to herself. 'I can't believe all of this. Look! It's a detailed anatomy on a butterfly. A butterfly! And here's one on a cat!' Chiyumi felt like she was dancing from one table to another, the hunger in her stomach completely forgotten in her delight. She forgot that she was in a stranger's home, walking around a stranger's lab, touching a stranger's things and let herself feel safe.

And that's when the pain hit her. The intensity of it made her stagger and hit her knees, and she couldn't even hear Stein call her name over the sudden pounding of blood in her ears and the sound of her own coughs as she spit up blood all over the concrete floor. She could hear an echo though, as she lost consciousness.

"I warned you to never trust strangers, Chimi. And now I have to punish you."

A/N: We're leading up to you finally meeting the Chiyumi that she's been trying to hide. She'll come out of her shell soon, if Shiyumi will let her ;)
Also, I still don't own Soul Eater :-(