It hadn't been Stein's intention to get so involved in a simple experiment, one that had been going on for quite some time now. What he had intended to do was a quick little test on the emotions and feelings of a weapon. What better choice than his own? But now…many years later…the excuse he'd been using of 'it's just an experiment' echoed lifelessly in his ears. Stein flopped backwards in his computer chair and stared vapidly at the ceiling, slowly twisting his bolt to sort out his thoughts. It annoyed him to no end, and the fact that the Kishen's madness was everywhere didn't help anything at all. But that wasn't what really bothered him. What bothered the professor was what he'd said to Medusa during their first fight, 'don't be ridicules, people like us can never concept the feelings of love.' And he'd meant it. But while he said those words, his hand seemed to be weighted down by his weapon's presence, and he felt a strange feeling twist and coil around in his guts.

There was a knock on the door, interrupting Stein's thoughts, "Stein! Let me in, god damn you!"

Stein's mouth involuntarily twitched upwards and he unlocked the door from his computer, letting a rather irritated Spirit inside, "Yes?"

"Bloody hell, Stein!" Spirit complained, his cheeks and nose red from the cold, "It's SNOWING outside and you leave me to freeze!" He had begun to unwind his scarf but Stein leapt up and stopped him.

"It's snowing?"

"Yeah!"

Stein grinned and grabbed his partner, dragging him down the hall and towards the front door, "I haven't seen snow in a while, c'mon Spirit let's go outside."

Spirit struggled pathetically, "Hell no! I just got in here! It's cold Stein!" He whined, as his meister tossed him out the doors and into a large snow drift. He landed face first in the crystal powder, and immediately spat a mouthful of snow out.

The doctor laughed, not an evil mad scientist laugh, but a normal amused one, "Spirit, you look ridicules!" And then grinned like a Cheshire cat and flung himself after his weapon. He had aimed perfectly and landed right on top of Spirit, causing the weapon the shriek and get shoved under by more snow.

It was refreshing for both of them, as they wrestled and tossed snow at each other. The only other time they'd played in the snow like this was when they were kids, and it brought back a lot of nice memories. It also helped melt the stress away, as the two shouted with cold while they stuffed snow down each other's shirts. Finally, after a few hours, they lay together in the torn up snow, panting and shivering.

"W-well that w-was fun." Stein chattered, sneezing as the cold wet ice water seemed to seep into his bones.

Spirit, still warmly bundled up with a coat and a scarf, laughed, "We haven't done that in a while!" He grinned at his meister.

Stein grinned back and then sneezed again, "B-better get inside before I f-freeze to death." He grumbled, standing up and shaking the snow from his body.

Spirit leapt up and noticed for the first that his friend was only wearing his usual garb, "Don't catch a cold on me, Stein." He joked, leading his shivering meister back into his house.

Unfortunately the next day, Stein had a cold.

"I remember w-why we never p-played in the snow a-again." Stein chattered, buried in his bed and shivering uncontrollably, "D-didn't I get a c-cold then too?"

"Yeah," Spirit sighed, adding another blanket to the already massive pile on top of his meister, "you never dress appropriately for the weather! Hold still, I'm going to go contact Lord Death and tell him you can't teach today. Don't go anywhere!"

"Where the h-hell can I go?" Stein replied miserably as Spirit fogged up his bedroom mirror and called Lord Death.

"Hi! Heya! How's it going!" Death happily greeted Spirit.

"Hey, Lord Death." Spirit said, "Listen, Stein has a really bad cold—" he was interrupted by a loud sneeze from behind him, "—and won't be able to teach today. I'm taking care of him so I can't come in also."

"Oh!" Lord Death cocked his head, "Well ok! Feel better, Stein!"

"Thanks." Stein mumbled.

Spirit smiled and disconnected the mirror. He walked back over to the mound in the bed, "Do you want anything? Tea? Food?"

"No thanks." Stein sniffed, curled in a ball under the blankets, "Spirit you know you don't h-have to be here, right?"

"Psh!" Spirit scoffed, "Who else will take care of you?"

"I am a g-grown man, Spirit." The doctor protested weakly, sneezing.

"Yeah, who acts like a baby." Spirit countered, handing Stein another pillow, "Besides, I've taken care of you a bunch of times, I know what I'm doing."

Stein rolled his eyes but hid a pleased smiled, "You a-act like a mother h-hen."

Spirit snorted but didn't bother to deny it. When it came to Maka or Stein, Spirit would get very motherly when either one of them were unable to hit or dissect him. The rest of the day passed smoothly, Stein slept on and off and Spirit sat next to him reading. Whenever Stein awoke, Spirit would get him whatever he asked for, and then coax him to have medicine, a feat nobody in the world but death scythe could accomplish and live to tell the tale. It took a couple days but soon they were able to cut down on 1/3 of the blankets and Stein had stopped his violent shivering.

It was early in the morning when Stein woke; he was slightly disoriented by his new sleeping pattern, and looked around immediately for Spirit out of habit. He overlooked the death scythe at first because of how still he was, but when he looked again he could help but smile.

Spirit was sitting in the same chair he'd occupied for a few days now, a nice sized leather swivel chair, and he'd completely passed out. Death scythe's head lolled on his chest and his body was slumped in the large seat. His arms were folded over his chest and his legs were drawn up off the ground, giving him the appearance of a child.

Stein was thirsty, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to wake his weapon. Sighing, he pushed a few more blankets off and stared at the ceiling, watching the shadows dance and churn around him. He lay like that for hours, slipping in and out of consciousness, debating over what he'd been thinking about before their little snow adventure. Even now, when he refused to wake his slumbering weapon, it made his mind hiss possibilities at him. Stein rolled over, his back to Spirit, and glared at the wall. His cold had died away, leaving him with a slight headache and a small dying fever. It bothered him to no end that he'd become so weak as to let his feelings begin to influence him. Stein frowned out the window; the landscape blurry without his glasses; no that can't be right…Spirit was the only one he felt weird around. Growling under his breath he rolled over and freed his arms from the hot mess of blankets. Tossing them over his head he watched Spirit sleep from the corner of his eyes. It was just an experiment, nothing more. But even to Stein those words were hollow. He hated it.

"…Stein?"

The doctor looked over and saw that Spirit had jerked awake and was blinking like a startled owl, "Yeah?"

Spirit grinned and shoved the hair from his face, "I think I fell asleep for a bit, do you need anything?"

Yes! Stein's mind screamed, but the doctor ignored it, "No, I'm ok."

"Hnm." Spirit eyed his meister and got up from his chair and stretched, his back cracking in relief from his weird sleeping position. "Hold still a sec." He leaned over Stein and placed his hand on the doctor's forehead, and then his own forehead on the back of his own hand. His nose was an inch or so away from Stein's and his expression was almost comically serious as he judged Stein's temperature.

The doctor's heart rate increased but he kept his expression smooth and unfazed, "Spirit I'm ok, why don't you go take a nap?"

Spirit grinned down, but he looked almost…nervous? "Heh, yeah well what if you need something? Don't worry I'm not tired at all!"

Stein rolled his eyes, "Idiot, you exhausted, why don't you sleep?"

"Cuz I have a job to do." Spirit replied, grinning down at his meister, "But I'm happy to say you do look a lot better." He yawned and pulled away, letting his hand slide off the doctor's forehead.

"Idiot." Stein repeated bluntly, grabbing Spirit's wrist and tugging him down on the bed. The red head tumbled onto the large bed with a startled yelp, only to have his insane meister grin down at him, "Just sleep."

"Yeah right." Spirit grumbled, fidgeting around.

"What? It's not like the first time we've slept together." Stein purred, watching with high amusement as Spirit blushed furiously.

"Don't be a perv." He mumbled, pulling some covers over him, "And you better not get me sick."

Stein chuckled, already feeling a lot better as they changed back into their normal roles, "Don't worry, I'll take care of you if you get sick."

"I bet you will." Spirit muttered, still blushing from the double meaning behind the other comment. But being the hypocrite that he was, it only took a matter of 30 seconds before the red head was happily asleep in Stein's arms.

The doctor snorted, "Yeah, not tired at all." He lay down next to his weapon and fell asleep too, smirking at exactly what he was going to do to him in the afternoon when they both woke up.

After a couple days, Stein was back in perfect health, if a little antsy from being so cooped up, and he had a perfect way to vent all his pent up energy. It was late at night and the weapon and meister had just finished dinner. Spirit, despite Stein's halfhearted complaints, was still playing mother hen to the scientist. Stein had figured that it was about time to reward Spirit for all his hard work. So that night when they were getting ready for bed, Stein decided to give Spirit his treat.

The red head was in the middle of pulling his pajama pants on when he felt cool hands slide up his bare back, "Stein?"

The scientist smirked as Spirit turned around, pants hanging loosely around his hips, shirt off, and hair disheveled. "I think I should thank you for taking care of me for so long." He purred, his normally dull green eyes flaring with promise.

Spirit caught on immediately, "Oh no, you just got better!" He stammered, backing away as his meister prowled after him.

"Yeah?" Stein prompted, grinning savagely as Spirit tried to back away and bumped into a wall. He could practically see the arousal his tinted words had given Spirit, "It's your reward, and you really wanna fight it?" He pressed against the red head and licked the side of his neck slowly, relishing the delicious shiver that ran through his weapon's body.

"Mnnh…Stein…" Spirit protested weakly, his hands reaching up to grip the silver haired man's shoulders. He could feel Stein's bare chest press against his own flesh and it sent a sinful tingling feeling all throughout his body.

Stein grinned and bit into the quivering flesh, holding Spirit's body to him as he sunk his incisors deep into the base of the red head's neck. "You know you like this." He murmured.

"Yes…" Spirit whimpered, already turning to goo as Stein's acidic pleasure filled voice washed over him. The sting of the bite made him yelp softly and arch off the wall and into the doctor's embrace. "Ah, Stein…!"

The scientist licked the hickey mark and then dragged Spirit onto the bed, hovering over him with his own pajama pants riding dangerously low. Stein watched the red head's eyes flicker to his pants and lick his lips with a hungry gleam in his eyes. The silver haired man smirked and leaned down, capturing Spirit's lips in a passionate kiss.

Spirit wrapped his arms willingly around Stein's shoulder and arched into the kiss, opening his mouth to accept the other's tongue. He tasted so damn good. Spirit moaned softly in the back of his throat and felt himself shiver longingly for what was to come.

Stein smiled secretly and trailed his hands down the marred flesh of his partner, tracing the old scars and pausing to playfully tug at his nipples, causing Spirit to groan desperately. Normally, if Stein was having his way, he'd tease and play with Spirit's body for hours, drawing it out until he'd reduced Spirit to a withering mass of need. But now was different, it was a reward, not a delicious torture. So he trailed his fingers lower and pulled off Spirit's pants and boxers as well as his own.

The red head already had an aching need for his meister, and the fact that Stein wasn't sensually torturing him seemed to increase his need to be claimed. "Stein…" he breathed, his eyes shutting as his body tingled wherever Stein's brushed his fingers against. He felt the scientist go lower and lower, circling the base of his dick. Spirit knew the routine; Stein'd play with him for awhile and then leave him aching with need. But all the same the red head still begged for contact, "Stein…touch me…please…"

The silver haired man brushed his fingers against the straining cock and contemplated toying with him a bit, but he once again reminded himself that this time was for Spirit. Stein wrapped his hand around the member and stroked him teasingly, fingering the slit with his thumb and spreading pre-cum around the head.

Spirit hadn't expected such an assault and it caught him off guard, he moaned loudly and bucked his hips into his meister's touch, surrendering himself to the wave of pleasure that invaded his mind and body, "Yes—ah!—Stein!" He panted wantonly, beginning to ache for his meister.

"Spirit," Stein murmured lustfully, leaning over the withering red head as he played with his dick, "What do you want?"

"More…" Spirit gasped, spreading his legs and clawing at the covers, "Oh, Stein, ngh, fuck me, please!"

Stein smirked and decided to play with him just a bit, he pressed two of his fingers lightly into the entrance, only letting them slide forward less than an inch, "Fuck you how?" He purred, his voice heavy with lust.

"Oh god." Spirit cried, trying to wiggle his hips down to impale himself deeper, "Fuck me hard, god Stein just take me!"

Stein moaned, his composure lost as the words went straight to his dick, he grinned and, knowing what this would do to his partner, began to talk as he finger fucked him, "You're such a cock slut." He purred, his eyes alight as Spirit bucked and moaned. "You really want me to fuck you senseless, huh?"

Spirit cried out as Stein hit his prostate, "Yes! Stein yes yes more! I want you! Fuck me!"

The scientist snapped and withdrew his fingers, replacing them with something bigger and hotter. He groaned as the tight, hot, wet entrance enclosed over him, causing Stein to snap his hips forward and bury himself completely inside Spirit.

Death scythe screamed shamelessly and arched off the bed, the sharp pain ripping through his senses followed immediately by blinding pleasure. Stein really knew how to hit the right spot. Spirit felt Stein lift his legs up and press them against his chest, and then begin to withdraw.

Stein pulled halfway out and then shoved himself back in, groaning as Spirit screamed in pleasure for him. It all felt so damn good. He loved it, and wanted so much more. He picked up the pace, fucking Spirit hard and without mercy.

The red head lifted his hips to meet with every thrust, crying out Stein's name desperately as he was violated in the best way. It all felt so damn good. He could feel his climax approaching and tried to hold it off as best as he could, but the doctor's brutal pace broke down that barrier effortlessly, "S-Stein! I c-cant hold on!" He managed to shout, his gut tensing in anticipation of his release.

The silver haired meister moaned Spirit's name in response and drove in deeper, feeling the walls pulse threateningly around him, "Come for me, Spirit." He panted, watching Spirit's eyes wash over in intense pleasure.

Spirit felt the coil tighten and then release, causing him to scream Stein's name in pure ecstasy. He came over their chest and stomachs and felt his vision dim from the force of his release.

The hot silken walls clamped down around Stein and he shouted Spirit's name just as loud, shuddering as he came deep inside his weapon. He held himself up shakily as he withdrew and then flopped down next to Spirit. Stein watched the red head struggle to regain his breath and smiled serenely; he'd finally figured out why Spirit wasn't an experiment to him anymore.

Spirit looked over and caught Stein's weird look, "What?" He panted, his face flushed from the sex high.

Stein smiled and drew Spirit closer to him, wrapping his arms around the exhausted man, "I have something to tell you."

"Oh?" Spirit asked, snuggling into the warmth of Stein's body.

"I love you."

Spirit froze and his heart momentarily went still, before picking up again with an erratic pace. He smiled and bit his lower lip, curling up closer to his meister, "I love you too, Stein."

The scientist smiled and reached down, tilting Spirit's chin up. They stared at each other for a moment, lost in their eyes, before sealing their love with a passionate soul eating kiss.