miikka-xx: erm, i'm back to soul eater. my interests just jump from fandom to fandom, don't they? anywhooo, otp of soul eater? yep: spirit/stein. mm, hot day-um.

title: monster
rating: T+ (15+)
summary: Spirit meets Stein for the first time. Life with a young genius killer is hard, Spirit soon finds out, especially when he's obsessed with you. stein/spirit. lime. complete.
disclaimer: nah. i wish. if i did though, crackity crack crack!
warning(s): nonexplicit lime, for 15+, two sentences of a bit of blood. a bit of swearing. STEIN.

monster

It was that day.

Spirit touched his own arm, feeling the cool, smooth skin under his fingertips - wondering where his blades had went (they were just hiding, a bit shy to come out) - as he walked around awkwardly in the auditorium.

It was that day.

Seeing the curious eyes of everyone around him, and feeling the tension and uncertainty in the air put him at ease. He was never this shy around people. He was the outgoing one, the brash one, the passionate one.

Not this skinny, stumbling red-haired boy who didn't have anyone to talk to.

Then again, it was that day.

The day Spirit's life would change.

The day he had to pick a partner.

Dear lord, someone help him, please. This was getting ridiculous. Spirit scanned the room again, watching each person walk around in an almost daze-like situation. Yeah, he could relate. There was no way they expected him to pick a... a... life-partner like that. Just sticking him in a room with a bunch of other people, half of who were weapons and the others who were meisters.

Ugh. He would have to get this done was no way he could get to know all the meisters here one by one. Not unless he talked to all of them at the same time. Spirit paused, glancing around at the speakers on the roof and smirked. He started to stride purposefully to the stage at the front of the auditorium. His lanky, fifteen year old self easily climbed onto it, standing loosely as he watched everyone. Taking the microphone that had been left on a small side-table which was used for announcements, he placed it near his mouth and took a breath.

Tapping it with his finger, Spirit reassured himself that it was turned on. The boom boom boom of his fingers alerted everyone. Adults and teachers started scrambling towards the stage to the offending teenager.

Whoops. Better make this quick.

"Ahem, my name is Spirit." His voice boomed over the crowd, silencing them. "Anyone here who can wield a scythe? And good wielding. None of that Grim Reaper slicing heads off crap."

One single hand appeared almost half-heartedly - a lazy gesture really. But Spirit would take it.

"Awesome. I'm coming over there. Don't move!"

In a wonderfully timed motion, Spirit leapt off stage right as a teacher tried to make a grab at him.

Working his way through the crowd, who patted him on the back for his brilliance, the boy broke through to a wide gap. The distinct lack of people around gave him a chance to breathe and then wonder why there was such an empty space.

"It's because I'm a monster."

The voice jerked him to reality as Spirit's gaze landed on a skinny, pale boy. He had shaggy, light hair and dark, intelligent eyes. There was something that suspiciously looked like a cigarette hanging from his hand. Spirit brushed it off and got to business.

"You can wield a scythe?" The boy nodded. "Alright. Well. Now, you're my partner." And because Spirit actually can't keep his mouth shut no matter what, "and are you actually monster - wait do you eat people?"

As if Spirit's stupidity isn't enough to embarass him, the boy cracked a smile and laughed at him. It was more of a breathy chuckle than a laugh. But the kid was still laughing at him and it sort of was humiliating.

"No, no," the boy shook his head, smiling crookedly, "I cut them up."

Fuck.

Spirit nodded quickly. "Uh-huh. Okay." Change the subject. Now. He gestured to the cigarette in the other's hand. "You smoke?" The boy watched him quietly with his dark eyes.

"Yeah." He lifted it up to the other, showing it was currently unlit. Spirit took the cigarette and placed it in between his lips before pulling out a crumpled pack of smokes from his back pocket. He took one out and gave it to the boy. The boy looked... surprised at the gesture. Like he wasn't used to communicating to others. Especially not blunt, brash red-haired boys who also smoked.

Spirit liked him already. In a kicked puppy sort of way.

"My name is Spirit, fifteen years old, future Death Scythe of Shinigami-sama," he smiled, thrusting a hand out to the boy. The boy looked at it almost uncertainly before grasping it firmly.

"My name is Franken Stein. I prefer Stein though, Spirit-senpai."

"Senpai?"

"I'm thirteen."

Stein moved in with him a week later, bringing his own mattress and and sheets. He was surprisingly mature about this - being a thirteen year old and all. So, Spirit had nabbed himself a kicked puppy who actually wasn't a kicked puppy but a genius-puppy-that-had-the-unfortunate-event-of-being-kicked.

Or something. It had sounded better in his head. Now, Spirit watched from the kitchen table as Stein boiled pasta and stirred the tomato sauce simmering on their stove. He was a pretty good cook and generally clean person. So, Spirit had nabbed himself a genius-puppy-of-a-housewife. His luck was unbearably awesome.

Yet there was this unfortunately major flaw. Stein cut up people.

And this might've been a deal-breaker for Spirit had he not redeemed himself by being a smoker. Because everyone knew a smoker could not live with a non-smoker without risking being beaten to death in the near-future. For now, it sounded exponentially shallow because hello Stein cuts people open yet it would work out, Spirit reassured himself, in the long-run.

Anyways, Spirit had never seen his partner cut up people. So maybe it was some twisted test?

"Ne, Spirit-kun, how did you get this scar?"

"Oi, Spirit, that's a nasty looking cut over there!"

"You woke up with stitches? Haha, don't joke, Spirit!"

"Something feels weird with your toes? They look fine. Funky scars though."

Spirit didn't know when it happened. Or how. Or who was doing it. Though he did have a sneaking suspicion it was Stein. But he didn't have proof! He never had proof! All he had were mysterious scratches and cuts and incisions and markings and stitches and dear god he was being cut up by his partner wasn't he?

It might be noted that it had taken almost a year for this to be all figured out in Spirit's head because he was quite the oblivious sort of guy. If it wasn't for the people around him or the occassional girl he screwed against a wall who had murmured about his sexy scars all over him, Spirit might have passed through his life happily oblivious.

Of course, a confrontation was now needed. Desperately.

"Um, do you cut me open?"

This was going to go great.

"Yes."

Spirit swallowed audibly and stared. Okay. He was being cut open. Okay. He was being cut open. Alright. Fine.

"Why?"

Stein cocked his head. He was getting taller now. His shoulders were almost level with his partner's. At fourteen, Stein didn't look remarkably different than his thirteen year old self. He had shed the baby fat around his cheeks and was getting even lankier and skinnier.

"Because I like you."

This was not the answer Spirit was looking for. So he came up with the brillliant suggestion to train and promptly beat up Stein two hours later, feeling less than satisfied, due to the smile his partner had the whole time.

"I like you, senpai."

Dream-world Stein was strikingly different than real-life Stein, was Spirit's first thought. Dream-world Stein had a loose fitting shirt on that was only half-buttoned - giving glimpses of pale, marred skin beneath. His face was soft and his eyes were bright, not dulled by lack of sleep. Spirit liked this Stein.

"I like you a lot."

Hm? Okay. Spirit liked his partner alot too. In fact, relationships between weapons and their meisters usually became so close and comfortable that they would often be romantic. Sleeping together, eating together, going out together, having sex with each other -

Dream-world Stein hugged Spirit right then. A tight, desperate sort of hug which sent all breath out of Spirit until he was gasping in the embrace.

"S-Stop, Stein, please! I-I can't breathe!"

"But senpai," dream-world Stein looked up with unnervingly bright eyes, "I like you."

He crushed Spirit in half.

Spirit woke with a yelp in his bed, gasping and trying to calm his beating heart. That wasn't a too pleasant dream. His strength, it was like... like...

"...a monster."

The red-haired man jerked in surprise at the voice. His partner stood in the doorway of his bedroom, looking apathetic.

"You look like you just saw a monster, senpai."

Spirit shook his head. "No. No, I saw you."

He flinched when Stein gave a twisted smile, his now fifteen year old face a handsome, pale mask to cover something dark writhing underneath.

"Exactly."

They went on missions with a regularity that even surprised Spirit. It was almost like a schedule. They worked every second day, and usually after a prompt breakfast at 6 in the morning. Then they would use Spirit's motorcycle to drive out to whatever town the souls were lurking. Stein's quick use of Spirit's sharp blades brough them a step closer to their goal.

They had now worked for two years and were twenty souls away from making Spirit a Death Scythe. The first year they spent on training or what Spirit liked to call it, "beating the shit out of my younger partner so he can get some experience with pain". The second year, Stein began to really start wielding Spirit. It was a quick-learned affair that surprised the red-haired man. He had gotten himself a pretty damn good partner.

Which was then quickly shot to hell as he started experiencing creepy marks on his own body and his partner started to slowly drift away from him. Spirit, while he lived and ate and smoked with Stein, really didn't actually know anything about him.

And that bugged him.

"Wake up."

Spirit groaned. "Noooo..." He heard Stein click his tongue and shake him violently.

"Wake up, senpai."

"Whaddya waaant," whined Spirit. He was sure he just hit the sack about ten minutes ago and now he was being woken up? This was injustice! Injustice!

"Shut up. Fine. I'll cut you open then."

"NO!" The horror of this thought snapped Spirit's eyes wide open as he saw his night table covered with scalpels and scissors and tongs and creepy, sharp metallic things used in dissection. There was also a syringe that had clear liquid in it - possibly some sort of sleep-inducing drug (so that's why he never noticed this happened). Around his body was a whole lot of seran wrap - he guessed it was to keep the blood of his sheets. And then, of course, hovering above him was Stein.

"Hi," he croaked out, feeling panic settling in his bones.

"Hello," greeted Stein blandly, "have you noticed now?"

"Th-that you're dissecting me?" Spirit gave a nervous laugh and looked for a way out. His hands and feet had been taped using ducktape against the bed. Great. Just great. What an embarassing position his dead body would be found in.

"How observant," his tone was dry, "do you know why I woke you up?"

Spirit paused than shook his head slowly. He didn't know. Why was his partner spoiling his own fun?

"How long have you known about me and doing this?" Stein gestured to the scalpels sitting innocuously on the night table. Spirit swallowed audibly and looked away.

"A-A while. A few months... half a year... a year... I-I don't remember."

"Why are you still here then?"

That was a perfectly good question. Why was Spirit taking this creepy abuse from his partner? Because just having someone to share cigarattes with did not overlook the fact that weird experiments were being conducted on his body, some of which he would never know the effects of. It was distinctly alarming.

And yet, here was Spirit, lying in the bed he always did, not knowing when he woke if he would be missing something, or what had happened. He didn't know, not really. Except that he liked Stein. He liked him a lot.

He liked Stein's quiet voice, his intent watching, his careful movements. He like Stein's little quirks, like straightening the spoons and forks in the utensil drawer, or wearing sandals with socks or having hand sanitizer in almost every room of the apartment. He was weird, dysfunctional, anti-social and Spirit took it all in and liked it.

Which is where he realized that this was Stein's dilemma. Stein didn't understand. He was so used to being pushed away, ostracized by his own peers, called a monster and crazy and pretty much every creepy name under the sun. Stein really was sort of like a kicked puppy. A certainly vicious kicked puppy.

"I like you, Stein. That's all." Spirit smiled. "Do I need a reason to still be your friend and your partner?"

Stein shifted and watched him with his dark eyes, pulling apart the words carefully and reconstructing them in his head.

"That's why I dissect you, you know," he replied quietly. His fingers traced a line down Spirit's half-buttoned pajama shirt. "You're inexplainable. I don't understand you. I want to understand you. How do you think? Why do you think like that? What makes senpai senpai? Even after a year of careful little incisions and observations, I'm still no closer to getting this. You're like a puzzle, senpai, and I can't seem to solve you."

"I'm a... puzzle to you?" This was an oddly morbid thought to Spirit. Yet, he had to understand that this was Stein, a self-proclaimed monster, who probably hated himself as much as he hated the world. Then there were people like him. Who accepted Stein. Such a foreign concept.

"There are... perhaps, better ways to express my liking for you," murmured Stein, no longer touching him but staring at his tools on the nighttable. Spirit nodded slowly.

"I can show you," he paused, "if you untape me." Stein flicked his gaze onto the duct tape and smiled crookedly.

"No, I already know. You... touch the person you like..." Stein brought his long fingers back to Spirit's shirt and he deftly unbuttoned it. Spreading it out, Spirit's upper body was now bare and shown in the dim light of the moon that peeked through the window.

Spirit then began struggling violently. "No. No. Stein, what are you-"

Stein took a scalpel and cut through the shirt as he pulled it off his partner, piece by piece. The shirt fell onto the ground, resembling strips of cloth. Now, Spirit was completely half-naked. Quickly, Stein pulled out the band around Spirit's hair, letting it spill over his shoulders in a shock of red.

"So that's what you look like," murmured Stein.

"Yes. Yes, this is what I look like, Stein, please," Spirit's panic reached a whole new level. He couldn't predict what his partner was going to do next and it was absolutely terrifying. But he could get out, couldn't he? Yes, he could. It was duct tape. He was a scythe.

Granted, bringing out blades that were not only small but in precise areas took concentration. He wasn't used to busting out knives on his shins or the inside of his wrists. Taking a deep breath, he began to visualize. Slowly, slowly...

"Senpai, you've gone quiet," remarked Stein as he watched him. Spirit was truly beautiful in Stein's eyes. Because he was kind, he let Stein in his home, cared for him, worked with him, Spirit was an enigma who liked monsters and Stein was the biggest monster to exist yet.

So deep in his thoughts that he did not hear the quiet slice of metal coming out of his partner. But he did regroup enough to realize that Spirit had cut through the duct tape.

It was a flurry of limbs. Spirit rolled to the side and grabbed Steins arm, slamming him to the floor. Stein's head knocked against the night table and they both rolled away in alarm as a flurry of sharp metal came slipping down. With Stein now awkwardly straddling his partner, he took advantage and pressed his weight down on Spirit's hips. Spirit took a breath and stared at him calmly. Stein had tricked himself into believing he was actually restraining the other when he was just a lean fifteen year old on top of a seventeen year old.

But Spirit was letting him, and that's all the permission Stein needed. He grasped his own shirt and pulled it off, baring himself just like Spirit. There were scars and stitches and a multitude of tiny marks and cuts on his torso.

"I know what a monster looks like," said Stein, "because I looked inside myself." Spirit shook his head,

"Everyone looks like that, Stein."

"No, senpai, not you," whispered Stein, leaning over him so his nose hovered over Spirit's own, "I think you're different. You must be. You like me."

"You don't need to cut people up to show them your liking, Stein," repeated Spirit patiently. His hands came up and held Stein's face delicately between them, making those dark eyes look into his own. "You're not a monster. You're not. Are you listening?"

"I don't want to, senpai," confessed the boy, "but I'll listen to you." This borderline obsession the boy had with him disturbed Spirit. But, like usual, he brushed it aside to deal with the problem at hand: Stein's awkward belief in himself.

"Stop, Stein," he ordered. The boy stilled and peered even more intently through his dark eyes. "You're not a monster. Just because someone else tells you you are, doesn't mean anything. If you believe you're a monster, you are. As long as you don't believe, you're just like me - a simple human being. Well, no, you are a genius but then you'd still be like me - a human being."

"Why are you so infuriatingly kind, senpai?" The boy's eyes were narrowed as if he was angry. Perhaps he was, Spirit wasn't quite sure. "Let me be a monster. I have no qualms with that. But let me have you, senpai. I want you."

There were thirty different thoughts going on in Spirit's head and none of them were even close to being child-safe. It was unbearably... kinky that his partner wanted him in possibly that way. Especially when they were both underaged and males and oh god, Spirit was actually getting hard at the thought.

"Ah." Stein froze. He shifted his hips. "You're... erect."

Spirit's face now matched spectacularly with his hair. The boy leaned back, pressing down upon the lump and gave a twisted smile. He bucked once, twice and felt his smile widen at the soft mewls his partner gave underneath him.

"Is this how you meant when you mentioned there are... other ways, my dear senpai?" Stein's grin was positively wicked at this point. He leaned down to stare at the blushing face of his partner. Spirit inhaled quickly, trying to calm himself down. He couldn't take this. Not with a fifteen year old and not with Stein. Summoning his energy, Spirit pushed the boy off him and got to his feet, despite the tent in his pajamas.

"Does it matter?" snapped Spirit. "Go to bed, Stein. I'll see you in the morning."

"No. Not unless you kiss me." Stein's grin had not faded in the least. It seemed stuck there, waiting for someone to punch it off. Spirit gave a half-hearted glare, too aroused to really do anything else.

"Stein, please, don't you need sleep?"

"My demands still stand, senpai."

Spirit cursed the gods and stared at the twisted face of his partner. Taking a hand, he slipped it around the boy's neck, letting his finger tangle with the shaggy, light hair. Stein shivered, looking at the arm from the corner of his eye. Spirit did not have to lean down much, seeing as Stein had been hitting growth spurt after growth spurt. His other hand slipped around the boy's waist and pressed him up against him.

"Do you feel that?" Spirit whispered against Stein's mouth. Stein's twisted grin had now become a half-lidded face of arousal. The boy did not waste any time bucking up against his partner.

"Y-Yeah," keened Stein, grabbing at Spirit's hips. He started to buck slowly against Spirit, losing himself in the friction of heat of all of it.

"Stein, p-please, fuck," gasped Spirit, "s-stop that, I thought this was just - ah! - a k-kiss-!"

Stein crushed his mouth against Spirit's, stilling his hips momentarily before beginning again, his hands moving around to grip under his partner's ass. Once again, the bucking started as quickly as it stopped.

The kiss was just as desperate. Spirit bit the boy's lower lip, sucking it harshly. He moved away and Stein reached up, moving his mouth against his partner's clumsily - his first kiss. Spirit moved away and stilled it with a thumb to the mouth. A moment later, he leaned down and pulled on the lower lip again, Stein's mouth opened up. The red-haired man leaned back and slipped his tongue into the warm cavern. Ah, Stein's taste -

"S-Sempai!" moaned Stein as Spirit's hand grabbed under the boy's behind, pressing it harshly against his movng hips.

The friction was addicting. Too addicting. Spirit couldn't even think - all he could process was Stein's weight moving against his just as desperately as Spirit himself. And Stein's taste - a metallic taste of copper and peppermint. The heat, the heat was so damn overwhelming, Spirit could feel himself succumbing to it.

Stein bucked once more. Then a bit harshly, finding a pattern between all the chaotic grinding. He tightened his grip around Spirit's behind and forced him to go with the pattern, feeling each timed thrust bring in more mind-melting pleasure.

"F-Fuck, Stein," groaned Spirit as his control relinquished more and more. Stein's face was coming back from the half-shrouded state of arousal to more of control. And wickedness. He smiled as Spirit was now reduced to mush. Finally, finally, his senpai was giving in.

Finally, senpai was actually his.

"That's it," murmured Stein, as Spirit pressed up against him, biting his lips, to feel more - more. The tables were turning and Stein was now the one called the shots. His hands gripped tightly around the flesh, bringing his partner's hips roughly against his own. It was all too much, Spirit gave in, his head falling in the crook of Stein's neck, letting the boy control his every movement.

"Senpai, you're mine," he whispered viciously. Spirit mewled at the possessiveness of the tone, letting it heighten his arousal even more. "Say it, senpai. Who do you belong to?"

"You, you, you-!" Spirit stiffened and suddenly jerked up against his partner, feeling the front of his pajamas soak in his release. Stein felt it and took one of the the red-haired man's hands and shoved them down his waistband. Spirit, even through the haze of his release, knew what to do and stroked Stein to his completion.

They stumbled into Spirit's bed and slept till noon.

Their relationship changed dramatically.

It seemed that Stein's obsession with Spirit might have lessened his devotion and instead been replaced by a sense of possession. He wanted Spirit like he wanted new scalpels. All the time, for his joy and pleasure. Spirit didn't realize he had even become his partner's playtoy until he found himself in Stein's room, tied to the bedposts as he was slowly cut open.

He was grateful for the doses of painkillers were being administered into his system but that did not excuse the fact that his pancreas was being observed by his partner.

"You'll never find anything in there. I'm the same."

Stein looked up at him, his dark eyes shining in amusement, "you're right."

He dipped a gloved finger in Spirit's blood and traced his victim's mouth with it like lipstick.

And just before he kissed him, Stein smiled, wickedly, and said, "we're all monsters, aren't we?"

an: and that was my first attempt at stein/spirit. truly my otp of this fandom. we'll see if the obscure fans will find this.

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