Summary:

Just some fluffy nonsense. Nothing more. Fake relationship and baby jokes incoming.

A/N:

Thanks to Brionnnnne for the comments! Sorry if I gave you a heart attack. Actually, no I'm not. Teehee :3

DISCLAIMER: Any mental illness depicted may or may not be accurate. I try my best to research symptoms, but I am not an expert and often base things on my own experiences. Stein is obviously a greatly whitewashed psychopath in the manga and will be depicted the same way here as it is central to his character. He will be violent, possessive, and even cruel at times. If that bothers you, this is probably not a story you want to read. The MC struggles with severe depression, grief, survivor's guilt, and a budding alcohol addiction. She switches between violent outbursts and fawning to cope with her feelings. This can be a dark story (with all the same themes and elements as the manga) and as the author I do not agree with all the things the characters do, say, or believe. Trigger warnings are in the tags. You have been warned, read at your own risks.

Stein hated Auriel. Well… maybe hated was too strong a word. Stein hated Michael, and that feeling completely differed from how he felt about Auriel. Michael lacked curiosity, and imagination, and was completely rigid and unflexible. He was the worst sort of human Stein had ever encountered, excluding himself.

He didn't feel that way about Auriel.

Then was it resentment he felt toward her? Or… did he resent Michael and his influence over her, even in death? Michael who loved with an iron fist and an even more indestructible law. Michael whose soul was blinding and powerful, so much so that it disfigured Auriel's. If it was just Michael he hated, why did he feel so strongly about Auriel?

All those conflicting feelings, all those heightened emotions he didn't understand. He couldn't care about Auriel. He couldn't. He wasn't capable of it, not since Azreal died and she turned her back on him – just like Michael wanted. Stein was heartless, everyone said so.

Caring about her? No. That would be silly.

Wouldn't it?

Stein had excused them smoothly from the kitchen under the guise of needing to bandage Auriel's hand. That was how they found themselves in the bathroom together for the second time that day. The sight of her blood was… nauseating and he quickly bandaged the cut after disinfecting it.

However, Auriel was still trembling, rage and confusion pulsating down the connection they were still sharing. They couldn't return to the kitchen like this, not with Cameel and Marie there.

"Why did you lie?" Auriel asked, teeth clenched.

"I assume you didn't tell them about your little… problem," he replied, tone emotionless.

"I thought Death would. He told you."

"I'm your meister."

"And Cam is my sister, Marie a fellow Death Scythe."

Stein sighed. He was still holding her hand in both of his, staring at the bandage as though it fascinated him more than anything else in the world. In reality, it made him sick. Once, he would have thought that the sight of her skin flayed open for him to see the layers of muscle, flesh, and bone would have been maddeningly intoxicating. Now, she had barely cut herself – it hadn't even required a stitch – and Stein could taste bile in the back of his throat just looking at the bandage.

"I thought you might be embarrassed," he said finally.

"So, you told my sister and one of my best friends that I was pregnant instead?" The question was incredulous and deservedly so.

"You did not seem to wish to tell them the truth."

"I didn't – I don't!"

"Then you're pregnant."

Auriel bit back a strangled noise of anger, muffling it with her free hand. Stein blinked down at her, confused. Was what he had said really so wrong? He watched as his weapon took several deep breaths through her nose to calm herself, her mouth still hidden behind her hand. Then she dropped it, squeezing her eyes shut as though she were in pain.

She was in pain. The feeling shot through their connection like a bullet to the gut and Stein felt his own body tense in response.

"You're forgetting several crucial details, Doc," she hissed, eyes flashing a poisonous green. "I ain't got a partner, we ain't had sex, and I ain't pregnant. What are we going to do when the little soul don't pop up in my womb like it's supposed to?"

Stein laughed, softly so as not to draw the attention of their guests. Auriel's face flushed crimson from the roots of her hair and into the high neckline of her dress. Her ears were even bright red. It was… it was cute.

"I'm your partner," Stein said, attempting to hold back his laughter lest she strike him.

"You're my meister," she retorted. "Not against the rules, but certainly looked down upon. And we," she yanked her bandaged hand away to gesture between them. "Haven't had sex. You didn't get me pregnant."

"They don't have to know that," Stein replied, feeling his signature maddened grin crawling over his face.

Auriel sighed, dropping her face into her hands. "The baby, Doc. There ain't no baby."

"We'll tell them you lost it."

He was prepared for the blow, her hand cracking down on his arm with enough force that it would have shattered his humerus had he been a normal human. In his case, it would only leave a bruise.

"That is cruel, Doc," she seethed. "I didn't think even you was that heartless."

"What, you don't want to have my children?" He feigned a hurt expression, placing a hand over his bandaged chest.

I could see the scream building in Auriel's throat before she even realized it was there and he lurched, grabbing the back of her neck in one hand and covering her mouth with the other. She fought against him for a second before coming back to herself, eyes wild and panicked. Then she tugged his hand away from her mouth. The heat of her lips still lingered after his fingers fell away and he resisted the urge to flex his hand.

"Telling them that will hurt them," she whispered.

"And yet none of them raised a finger when you were hurting." The words left his mouth before he could stop them, regret filling up every pore and blood cell and atom when his verbal blow landed.

Auriel visibly deflated, swallowing as though there was something stuck in her throat. He knew better than to offer to check to see if there was. Her shaking, bandaged hand pressed to her lips, and her flushed skin paled to a sickly hue. She swallowed again and Stein wondered frantically if she was going to be sick.

"You… I…" she started, then fell back against the sink.

Stein reached out to steady her, unsure why that was his first reaction, and her hands reached up to grip him, fingers digging into his skin through his lab coat.

"I don't want them to know, Franken," she whispered frantically. "They can't know."

"Then let me handle it," he replied, voice just as hushed. "You don't have to do anything but play along."

"You're okay with letting people think you got me pregnant?"

The question hung in the air between them, heavy as lead. His first thought was 'why wouldn't I be?' then 'is she worried about her reputation?' and then 'is she worried about my reputation?' before the mental image of her swollen aching folds leaking his cu—

Stein shook his head. "No, not at all. I've never cared what people thought of me."

Except for you.

"Now, I know that ain't true." Stein could feel her frown through the thick wool of his sweater where she pressed her face into his chest.

His partner had a point, one he did not wish to acknowledge. The smell of something baking wafting from the kitchen was enough to pull them apart. Auriel's brows furrowed, then her face smoothed and she rolled her red-rimmed eyes. Instead of wishing he could de-socket them this time, Stein wanted to turn her face toward his and press his lips to her eyelids.

Why in Death's name would he want to do that?

"Auriel, I—" he started, unsure of what he was going to say.

Unsure of the truths that were about to spill out of his mouth.

"Listen up," she interrupted and his mouth snapped shut, green eyes blinking rapidly down at her. "If I'm going along with this hair-brained lie," she spat the words so cutely that all he could think about was biting her lips. "Then this is what we're telling them. Death wanted me rehabilitated and assigned me to you, which is the truth. Now for the lie, we'll say we've always had a thing for each other and one thing led to another… and I just found out I was pregnant because I wasn't feeling well and you did a blood test or somethin'. It's so early that we don't want anyone to know. Cam and Marie are so close that the only people they would tell is each other anyway."

"Reasonable," Stein agreed.

"I know it will be hard to pull off seein' as we don't like each other," she continued as if unaware he was still holding her upright.

"Very difficult," he conceded because he was very aware of it.

"But if it's this early on… well, miscarriages aren't uncommon."

"I believe the statistic is one in four pregnancies in the first trimester, most of which before eight weeks."

Auriel blinked up at him, a little tremble fluttering through their connection. One so fleeting he barely caught it.

"Okay, we can lie to my sister," she said. "What about when I 'miscarry'?"

She removed her fingers from his arms to put air quotes around the word. That faint little tremble pulsed through him again.

"You lost the taste for alcohol. It isn't uncommon for pregnancy to ruin a taste for something one used to enjoy."

Auriel gave him a decisive nod, detangling herself from his hands and he almost pulled her back into his arms again. Almost. Stein wasn't an idiot. Well, he wasn't always an idiot. Except for the idea of Auriel's body growing with his child. That was making him very, very stupid. He was a doctor, a scientist. Creating life was one of the biggest accomplishments he could achieve. He would be remiss to say that it wasn't tempting.

"If you wanted, I could get you pregnant for real," he offered innocently.

Had he not caught her fist in his hand, Auriel would have shattered his ribs. He grinned down at her, wide and frightening but she was not cowed. He liked that she wasn't afraid of him. He liked that she never backed down from his goading. He wanted to watch her face grow red and her eyes flash, then watch her crumble beneath him, to fall to pieces.

"The day I sleep with you, Doc," she snapped, nose scrunching in disgust. "Is the day Hell itself freezes over."

"I didn't mean fucking you, Auri," he tutted, squeezing her fist. "Goodness, what a dirty mind you have. Must be from all that smut you read."

He expected her to get angry at that comment and braced himself for her next attempted blow, but instead, she bit her lip. The beginning of a smile was curling at the edges of her mouth and her shoulders began to shake. Then she laughed and it washed over him like the hot desert sun.

"So, you're telling me that you have always had a thing for him?" Cameel said, gesturing to Stein who was grinning like a madman.

"Yes." Auriel nodded, hoping to appear sheepish.

"It's true, Cam," Marie said, a twinkle in her single golden eye as she turned from taking the brownies out of the oven. "I remember once when we were teenagers, she told me that they kissed and it was the best kiss she'd ever had."

Suddenly Auriel wished the floor would open up and swallow her. Or that the Kishin would come back from his prison just to swallow her whole like he had his own weapon. She could feel Stein's eyes on her, and instead of shying away, she nestled herself closer to him, hiding her face in the fabric of his lab coat.

"Marie," she whined, now not having to pretend to be embarrassed. "You weren't supposed to ever tell anyone that."

"Him?" Cameel repeated, not giving her weapon and best friend the chance to respond. "I could have sworn you hated him. I mean, you refused to speak to him after our brother died."

"Which was totally unfair," Auriel said, feeling the tremble of displeasure Stein gave at the turn in conversation. "And unfounded. Stein couldn't have anything to do with Azrael'spotential recovery or his death."

Cameel's brows were still furrowed, but she grabbed a clean knife from the block on the counter and began cutting into the brownies she and Marie had finished mixing while Stein and Auriel were in the bathroom, then baking while they explained their convoluted lie. She seemed suspicious, but that was her nature. Cameel was always paranoid when it came to her younger siblings and their well-being.

"Well," she said after a minute, setting the knife in the sink. "Well, if you're happy then I won't question it. And… I won't tell Mama. If I do, then she'll be down here with a shotgun demanding a wedding, and ain't none of us want that."

"Says you," Auriel pouted.

Pretended to pout. She didn't actually want to marry Stein.

Stein who was tugging at his collar, a pink flush tinging his pale skin and nervous laughter shaking them both where she clung to him.

"I mean… that wouldn't be so bad," he said, settling his arm around her waist. "But it's too early for anyone to know yet. I thought she would have told the both of you immediately. This is my fault."

"Well," Marie said mirthfully, twirling a golden curl around her finger. "I'd say this is all your fault. You know, because your pull-out game sucks."

Astonishment blasted through Auriel's and Stein's resonance – the longest they had ever held – a mutual electric heat that came from both sides of the connection. If Auriel had been eating one of the brownies Cameel was now dishing out of the pan – all gooey and dripping with melted chocolate chips – she would have choked.

"That method is statistically unlikely to prevent pregnancy, Marie," Stein chided, ears pink. "Seminal fluid is easily able to travel into the vaginal canal without a male partner ejaculating."

"I think I would like this conversation to be over now," Auriel whined, attempting to pull away from Stein who held fast to her.

"So, you're saying you didn't pull out," Marie gasped, delighted.

"You got my baby sister pregnant on purpose?" Cameel snapped around a bite of brownie.

"Not on purpose," Stein said, squeezing Auriel around the middle. "She just couldn't help herself."

"Oh, sure, dummy, blame the whole thing on me!" Auriel hissed.

"I'm not, I had as much say in the act as you did."

Cameel looked positively green, setting down her brownie on the sterile stainless-steel counter. Then she grabbed the bottle of wine and stuck it under her arm. Marie bounded over to give the 'happy couple' a congratulatory hug, bone-crushing in its affection. She smelled of honeycomb and wildflowers, a stark contrast to the sharp acrid smell of cigarettes.

"I think I want this conversation to be over too," Cameel said, picking her brownie back up and shoving it in her mouth. "C'mon, Marie. Let's leave the lovebirds to nest. We'll see 'em at school on Monday."

She handed Marie a brownie, patted her on the head, then pushed her aside so she could slip an arm around Auriel's shoulder, carefully avoiding touching Stein. Auriel didn't know why, but that made her bristle. What did Cameel have against him? She never thought Stein was responsible for Azrael's death, and she didn't particularly care when it was revealed that he had dissected Spirit for their five-year partnership; other than her not trusting him around Auriel afterward.

Cameel had actually been pleased, as Spirit had broken her heart when they were younger. She thought he had deserved it; something Marie and Auriel never agreed with. Something Azrael had stopped speaking to Cameel over for years until he was on his deathbed – even if he was one of Stein's staunchest supporters.

"I'm sorry," Cameel said, face hard.

"For what?" Auriel asked.

"For not realizing how unhappy you used to be." Before Auriel could respond, her sister dropped their embrace and she turned her full six-foot height upon Stein who was decidedly unaffected. "Hurt my baby sister, and I will kill you, Stein. Got that? And I know you won't dissect her, so don't either of you start in on that. I mean breaking her damn heart, it's done been broke enough already."

Stein silently affirmed that he wouldn't with a nod so stiff Auriel was afraid he'd snap his neck. Cameel returned it, blank-faced, and she turned to her brownie-eating partner, placing her arm around Marie's shoulder with a protectiveness she typically reserved for her siblings. Marie, small and bright, leaned into the dark cloud that was Cameel as though she was the earth to her moon. But the way Cameel clung to the small weapon's shoulder… it was like the earth clutching at its tether to the sun.

Then they were gone and Auriel ripped herself away from Stein, sagging against the countertop. He stared down at her behind his glasses, lifting an unlit cigarette to his lips. He smirked, and something about that irritated her.

"Don't want that secondhand smoke gettin' to our baby, do we?" she snapped.

His head tilted and his smirk widened into that wild grin of his. "Want to keep pretending then?"

"Oh fuck off," she yelled, storming over to the basket her sister and Marie had left.

There was fruit, crackers, and cheeses. Typical housewarming gift; however, a cute little figurine of twin angels sat nestled in the crinkled paper in the basket. With a tenderness that belied the anger in her chest, Auriel lifted the figurine from the basket and brushed a thin layer of dust from the characters' faces.

One with black hair, one with pink. A boy and a girl.

It had been a gift that Azreal had given her when they were little; she had kept it in their childhood bedroom. It had gone missing when she partnered with Michael. She hadn't realized one of her siblings might have kept it. It was for the best because Michael might have broken it in one of his rages – a lot of her things had been irreparable in the years that followed.

All because she was stupid and useless, of course.

A bitter laugh escaped her, and she felt something encroach over her soul, gnawing at the connection she shared with Stein. Wiping her eyes, she set the figurine down on the counter and set about putting the food from the basket away. Stein stayed, smoking the whole time.

"You going to eat one of them brownies or what?" she bit out, not daring to turn around.

"You didn't make them," he replied.

"Marie ain't about to poison you."

Stein sighed and she heard the whisper of his shoes across the concrete floor. A trickle of pleasure filtered through their connection and that wave of darkness abated for a moment.

"You're right," he said after a beat.

"I usually am, but about what this time?" she asked.

"These do taste like dopamine, or what I would imagine dopamine tasting like."

A laugh burst through her for a second before she stifled it with a hand. She shouldn't laugh. Not at him, not with him. He… that lie he roped her into… God, it made her so angry. She needed to be angry with him, Michael wanted her to be angry with him.

Auriel always did what Michael said.

Her hand came to rest on that little figurine again. Why had she always done what he said? Why? She had been stronger than him. Better than him. And Stein had never wanted her to be anything but herself, only pushing when Michael interfered with who she wanted to be.

So, why?

Why had she allowed all that abu—

Auriel couldn't bring herself to even think the word, visions of Michael's sweet face twisted in rage, fists raised, and violence on his tongue.

Twisting, she grabbed the figurine and marched past Stein to her room. She pulled the key from her dress pocket and unlocked the door, setting the figure on her dresser before grabbing her bag of new books and locking the door behind her.

Death asked her to acknowledge what happened. Michael happened. There was nothing she could do to change his role in her life, but she could choose to be happy right now. And right now, she wanted a bowl of dopamine and a smutty romance novel.

"I thought you said too much sugar was bad for you?" Stein asked, following Auriel from the kitchen to his office-slash-living room-slash-almost library with all the books now sitting on the coffee table.

"I'm not the doctor," Auriel said stretching herself out on the large couch, settling a bowl filled to the brim with brownies and ice cream on her stomach. "Besides, I've only eaten one very large meal today. And I'm apparently pregnant with your child."

Stein sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was going to regret this lie, even if it was hilarious. Despite it being convenient. At least for Cameel and Marie's sake.

"One meal isn't enough sustenance for our child, Auri," he admonished dryly.

"Hence the brownies and ice cream."

"You took nearly half the pan."

Instead of replying, she took a heaping spoonful and shoveled it into her mouth without breaking eye contact. Stein sighed, realizing that anything else he said, she would just take her annoying – yes, annoying not cute – behavior one step further. Then he moved around the coffee table, lifted her feet off the couch, and plopped himself down where they had been, placing them in his lap.

His head lolled along the back of the couch, gaze trained on the trail of smoke that wafted toward the ceiling, stretching his arms out along the back of it. They were so long they nearly spanned the whole piece of furniture. Luckily, Auriel and her family were all abnormally tall and their furniture was bought to accommodate.

"Doc," Auriel said, tone a little… indiscernible.

"Hnnn?" he muttered around his cigarette.

"I hate to ask you for a favor, but could you, um, maybe unbutton my boots?" Her voice tilted up at the end of the question.

He remembered it did that when she was unsure of herself, or if she was unsure the person she was with would help or respect her. He hated that he remembered so many little things about her. He hated that he had just managed to forget about her – becauseofthemadnessbecauseofthemadnessbecauseofthemadness – and now she was back in his life, so different. So much the same.

He especially hated that if he thought about it less, he didn't hate it at all.

"I just don't want to get dirt on your pants," Auriel said, gripping her bowl tightly. "And since my hand is damaged again it's going to be hard to get them off by myself—"

No, Stein didn't hate that she was here. He hated that. She was blabbering, talking too much to distract him because she was afraid of his reaction. Was she afraid he would react like Michael, or that his reaction would be different? Which scared her more?

Why did the thought make him so indescribably upset?

Without a word, Stein lifted one of her feet into the air, his large but deft fingers undoing each tiny button with ease. Then he moved onto the next foot before dropping both boots on the ground beside the couch. Auriel stared at him, wide-eyed and mouth gaping.

"Your ice cream is making your dopamine soggy," he said around his cigarette.

Blinking rapidly, Auriel shoveled another bite into her mouth. A pleased hum traveled to him through their resonance, if it could truly be called that. He was stitched to her soul by a thread, enough to hold the shadow at bay, but not enough for a full connection. That would take more time than a mere week, he suspected.

"Thank you," she whispered when she finished chewing.

"Mhm," he responded.

Then silence fell. It wasn't awkward, but it was a bit unpleasant after the silence he endured this afternoon. The silence that triggered his little episode. He would almost like to repeat it if it would result in her holding him oh so tenderly again. Just to feel that delicious cocktail of dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin that rushed his brain at her touch; however, he was altogether undeserving of such touch, unworthy of such gentleness.

Was it his basest human nature that craved such a connection to her? He had never desired such a touch from another. Spirit would occasionally hug him before the incident; Azrael would cling to him in a coughing fit, pat his head – because he was the only one tall enough to reach, or hold him tightly during his less common instances of madness when he was still alive; even Percy would place a fatherly hand on his shoulder, or offer a quick embrace.

None of those touches were unpleasant, not like Michael's strong hands twisting Stein's too-long limbs behind his back in an attempt to sprain or break them. None of them felt in any way similar to Auriel's delicate hands on his body, the way her fingers felt running through his hair. Pleasant, in the cases of his friend and former mentor. Tolerable, in the instance of his former partner.

Auriel was indescribable, and that bothered him. He liked things in neat, quantifiable boxes because if they were not, they were capable of driving him mad. The sound of a slithering snake, skittering spider, the wet splatter of copper-scented blood landing on the concrete walls. Laughter. Laughter. So much laughter.

He wrenched at the bolt in his head, biting through the cigarette filter.

CLIIIIIIIIIICK

"Ouch…" Auriel whispered.

Stein's eyes flashed open in horror, flashing to her face to see it twisted in pain. She was reaching toward her feet and he looked down to see his cigarette burning through her stockings. Barely having to move, he grabbed the crystal ashtray off the table and swept the cigarette into it, flicking the ash off the top of her foot, then spitting the filter in his mouth into the tray. This was why he hadn't had a partner in years. This was why no one wanted to get close to him.

"Are you okay?" Auriel asked and Stein could have sworn she was glowing.

Her hand touched his forehead, warm and soft, and he felt himself relax at her touch – if only a little.

"I didn't—" he started but the sight of her soft smile stopped the words in his throat.

"I have more stockings than I know what to do with," she said, leaning back against the cushions. "Are you okay?"

The loss he felt at her fleeting touch was acute and terrible. The desire to take her in his arms – totakehertotakehertotakeher – was nearly overwhelming. He was wholly undeserving, but he wanted, needed, hoped, craved. His hands found their way to her stockinged feet and squeezed at the muscles there – tensetensetensetense.

"I need a distraction," he muttered, head falling back against the couch again.

"Well, you can help me choose a book to read," she offered, her voice doing that high note again.

"What do you have?"

"Smut, smut with plot, plot with smut, more smut, and plot-heavy with a sprinkling of smut."

Stein raised his head, intrigued, opening one eye to look at the covers of the books she was pulling out of the bag for him to see. He motioned for her to rotate them so he could see the front and back of each one before pointing to the third option she held up.

"Don't you want to know what it's about?" she asked, pouting a little.

"I like the cover." He shrugged, grinning his creepy grin at her.

It was a gothic, macabre cover of a young woman floating in black brackish water, a pale tall man attempting to lift her from her doom. It was intriguing. He wondered if that was the 'plot-heavy' one.

"This one is…" her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth as she opened the dust jacket to read the summary. "Oh! This one is that Hamlet retelling. I was looking forward to this. It's very smutty. And bloody."

"Can I read it next?" he asked innocently.

"Oh sure," she said absentmindedly, flipping through the pages and biting her lip.

He wanted to bite her lip, to hear her gasp and moa—

"What did you think of the book I got you?" she barreled through his thoughts and his mind had to race to remember what the book had been about.

Right, the one that seemed to be loosely based on Frankenstein. Azrael would have disapproved, only because it was his favorite novel. Not because of the smut. That boy was very…

"It seemed interesting." Stein smirked.

"Do you…" Auriel swallowed, cheeks pinking. "D'you maybe want to read together?"

How… mundane. Is this what most weapons and meisters got up to? Reading together? Giving each other foot massages – because he just realized that was what he was doing to her feet.

"If you would like," he said.

Auriel nodded. The action was so nauseatingly endearing that he couldn't have refused even if he wanted to. He didn't because he had seen her crying enough this week and sensed through their faltering resonance that she was seconds from shattering entirely. Again. Just like him.

Maybe normal was what they both needed at the moment.

So, they picked up their books and began to read. Stein's free hand fidgeted with Auriel's feet and toes as he read, earning himself little kicks when he found a particularly ticklish spot; though, Auriel made no protestations.

Stein had prided himself on being a fast reader, something Auriel had tried to challenge when they were younger – both of them far outpacing Azreal. She never was able to keep up, which was hilarious to him at the time. It was hilarious now when he looked over to see her frowning at him, cheeks pinker than before.

"You're blushing," she said, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

"As are you," he responded.

Stein was a third of the way through the book, and he was beginning to see why Auriel had left him that inscription. The doctor in question was very like him in many aspects, something that pleased him a little. Because if he did smoke while reading it, she would be forced to smell him and maybe imagine him as the main character. God, Death, thinking of her unable to help but to touch herself while thinking of him—

He was dangerously close to alerting her of that desire. Her feet were in his lap. She would know.

Why did he desire that? What made him think that way continuously? He never, he never… Why?

Something occurred to him then, and he couldn't help voicing it as soon as it popped into his addled mind. "Why did you never marry Michael? Or have children? You were together for a very long time, usually that results in one or the other at some point."

The way Auriel's face shuttered over made his heart clench; he had asked the wrong thing. But he had to know. Maybe she did too.

"I…" Auriel gulped. "I suppose, since we're partners now, that you deserve to know."

Stein waited, impatience barely kept in check, his thumb drawing circles around her ankle. He didn't have to wait too long.

"I had a procedure done," she said rapidly, the words spilling over each other in their rush to escape her lips. "It's reversible, but I didn't want to have children with him. I never told him. And as for getting married, that was all him. He proposed, but kept pushing the dates back."

Through resonance, Stein felt something lighten in her soul. Somehow, some way, the shadow seemed less dense. Its power was less strong. Not by much, but with someone with as sensitive soul perception as him, it was glaringly obvious.

How curious.

"Why didn't you want to have children with him?" The question was blunt, as he was, but he delivered it with all the gentleness he knew how to muster.

That wasn't much, but he tried.

"You know what he was like," Auriel muttered, throwing an arm over her eyes.

In her reclined position it made her seem like a distressed Victorian maiden. Something eerily similar to the main character in the book he was reading. A flush warmed his cheeks again, remembering the scene he had just left off from.

"And how was that?" he asked, refusing to back down.

Stein's hypothesis was producing some results. Again. He wasn't ready to let that go.

"Well, he could be very… rough. Unkind. I thought he would make a terrible father," she admitted, a cold feeling of betrayal spilling down their connection. "I loved him. I loved him a lot, but he was never… I didn't… He…" She cleared her throat. "I don't really want to talk about this anymore."

"Okay," the word was out of his lips the moment she finished talking.

As much as he wanted to continue his experiment, if his test subject was unwilling – or shutting down – due to the questioning or activity, it would skew the results. He couldn't have that. He also couldn't take the sight of Auriel's vibrant green eyes shining with tears he wasn't causing – tears he was going to tease from her, coax from her, from laughter, from arguments, from pleasu—

No. Stein was a scientist. A doctor. He wasn't about to screw up his results with unnecessary emotion. He wasn't about to cause Auriel any more unnecessary pain. Not today. Not unless she asked very, very nicely. And that was something she would never ever do.

A/N:

I am going to have so much fun with the fake relationship/baby thing yall have no idea.

Chapter titles taken from Ghost's "Life Eternal".

Thank you in advance for any comments, encouragement, follows, and faves. They mean the world to me. Please don't forget to comment your thoughts!