A/N: This has a dissection scene in it, so I'm just warning everyone beforehand. Also, I decided to update early because I've been a little depressed lately and thought this would be a good way to pass the time :)

Either way, Tanoshimu!

After our first meeting, Marie had asked if she could stay at my lab until she could find an apartment somewhere in Death City. I didn't really know how to respond and faltered to give her a straight answer. So, Lord Death forced the burden of accommodating her melodramatic existence into my home.

The following few weeks were complete hell for me. I had to share my living space with a woman I barely knew, and was constantly flirting or complain about one thing or another. She cried a lot about things and people she could never and would never have. She whined incessantly about how she wasn't good enough for another person to love her.

I had intermittent headaches throughout the first week of our partnership. There wasn't anything I could do about it, she didn't leave me any time to myself to think things through or experiment. She was always up in my face spouting things like "We need to get to know each other perfectly!" or "Tell me everything about your past and anything else you can think of, I want to know everything about you!"

I had become overwhelmed with the woman's chattering. Eventually, every time I looked at her mouth jabbering about a lost love and it almost made me sick to my stomach. I came to a point where I couldn't take any more of her mindless babbling and I told her to leave. She cried and cried for hours on end. I forced myself to retract my demand and help her unpack her hastily thrown together luggage.

Marie made me realize how lucky I was to have owned a partner who shared my love of silence and solitude. Spirit always knew when to be quiet and just enjoy the moment, but when the time called for it, he also knew how to have a great time. He had held such a perfect attitude towards each situation he was dealt.

It made me miss him more and more with each passing day.

I ended up calling him one night, when I was completely alone after Marie had called up a few friends to have a night on the town. After two or three rings he picked up.

"Hey! Stein how's it going? Can I call you back tomorrow, I'm kind of at Kami's house—it's a date night."

I could hear another person in the background laughing and pulling Spirit into a side conversation. I knew it was a girl based on her feminine laugh and voice. He laughed and chattered back to her lovingly. I choked and stammered out an answer.

"Uhm, well…" I swallowed and caught my breath from being taken off guard.

"Actually, Spirit, don't bother."

I hung up on my lifelong friend. I knew he had more important things to be worried about that night. I wasn't going to be the killjoy to his party, so I set him free. That was the most painful thing I had ever done in my life.

I looked over at the window by the door and wondered what time Marie would be returning. I suddenly had an overwhelming itch to dissect.

Lighting a cigarette, I headed into my lab and adjusted my glasses. I walked to the sink and flushed any bacteria off of my hands. In my cabinet, I had three options for a subject: a mouse, a cat, or a frog.

I surveyed my options. A mouse was fairly small and would only provide amusement for a short while. I had the frog, which was considerably larger than the mouse, but was a common dissection and wouldn't satisfy my thirst for discovery. I could've named every piece of the frog and lay out an entire diagram without even puncturing the skin. The cat however…I realized quickly the cat had only been dissected a few times before.

I knew the cat could provide entertainment and fill my insatiable hunger for new toys, though it wasn't completely unexplored. A smile twitched across my face as I pondered every possibility of the imminent experiment.

I pulled a white sheet out over my steel surgery table and laid a few tools to the side for later. I rummaged through the cabinet, searching for the bucket that contained my next victim. Three large, black letters led me to my destination and I brought the encasement off the shelf to place beside the table.

I pulled the lid off and carefully reached into the liquid to produce a small corpse of a cat. The fur had been completely shaved off and the pathetic body was left naked lying on my table. I marked the feline with small dotted lines to give my blade a track to follow. The knife tore through the cat and small pins were set into place to hold it open. I pressed and sliced at the organs that resided inside this lifeless heap of skin and blood and bones and fluid. When I got to the heart, I cut it in half, watching the embalming fluid pour out like synthetic blood.

The smell of formaldehyde was familiar to me. Its scent made my head spin and my stomach turn, but it always pulled me deeper into the experiment. It was one of my favorite parts of the experiment, as it kept my victims for their post-mortem dissections.

Unlike Spirit, this cat was dead, as most of my victims were. The cat did not need to be healed, did not need to be stitched back together or nursed to health. This realization caused my interest to dwindle and fade as time passed. I reached for the trash bag that rested neatly on the counter so I could throw the cat out—I was bored of it now.

I slipped with the knife in my hand. It cut across my coat, tearing the white fabric. The silver blade crashed to the ground, producing a bell-like echo through my laboratory. It sounded so empty in my house. I needed to get out.

I needed to talk to someone, anyone.

At that moment, I actually slightly missed Marie's endless flow of words. I wanted to hear them so that I could keep my mind off the shock of Spirit and Kami.

I realized then why I started the experimentation on the cat after all. I felt the need to take my pain out on another being. That was also why I got bored with it. I realized that I couldn't force the cat to feel how I felt. I knew the cat was dead, yet I tried to inflict pain knowing full well that I could never exact my feelings on something that could no longer feel anything at all.

I found myself toying with the idea of what it would be like to feel nothing at all—only seeing the world from a distant view, not having to worry about consequences or pain.

I was standing over the table again, stroking the cat's head. I knew it made no difference to the dead animal lying still, covered in lacerations and gashes. I apologized to the small body for defacing and mutilating it to the point of being almost unrecognizable.

Its body was limp, but held its frame as if it would never give up that one last dignity of being defined as a cat—however insignificant. I wrapped the poor carcass with the paper and slid it into the bag, placing my tools into the sink before I left the room. Walking down the halls, I observed the monotony of the place I had always called home. My heart ached as memories of Spirit flooded into my head.

I walked by my bedroom, remembering that night we had slept side by side without a care in the world. I remembered the first time we had hung out in that room, talking about new moves that we could try and new ways to improve our soul resonance. What we hadn't planned on was for it to become a bond that would never truly dissolve.

I looked into the living room where I had been beaten as a child for years. I remembered the feeling of my father's fist against my body as I crashed to the floor, pleading for him to stop. I remembered how, so many years ago, Spirit's eyes widened as I showed him how to use a soul resonance in that room.

I made it to the foyer. I stared at the front door. Spirit had walked through there one day, when we were younger—when things were simpler. He was my first friend and my best friend. He showed me how to be happy. He showed me what true friendship was. He was my first love. I remembered how I'd watched him walk out that door. How I'd watched as my future walked away from me, embarking on an adventure of his own.

I let him leave, he wasn't mine to keep.

I walked outside and threw the bag into the trash. My body felt tired, all I wanted was a good night's sleep. I turned on my heels and walked back inside the door. I locked the door behind me and grabbed a new cigarette from my coat. I strode back into the living room.

The couch looked so inviting, and my muscles were aching from a mixture of pain and fatigue. I reclined, letting my limbs relax for the first time in what seemed like forever. My eyes began to sting as I thought about my conversation with Spirit and the last thing I had told him.

I heard a key turn slowly in the door. I dismissed it as a hallucination from my extreme sleep deprivation until I heard a voice chime through the walls.

Marie.

I shifted my body so that I sat with my hands in my face and my elbows resting on my knees. My fingers laced and intertwined with my silvery gray hair. Her small body and long blonde hair made no noise as she slinked through the halls, careful not to wake anyone who might be sleeping.

She must've seen me sitting there in that pitiful state with smoke pouring from my lungs like liquid because she squeaked in surprise as she passed me.

"Stein, I'm home."

I looked up at her from my hands, something was wrong.

"Are you okay?"

Tears formed in her large amber eyes. She shook her head quickly and looked away. I jumped up from my seat and ashed my cigarette on the coffee table.

Her body began to shake as she started to cry. There was something different this time. This time she was crying because she was hurting, not because she was upset about some meaningless girl fight.

I wrapped my arms around her in attempt to comfort this woman. I had barely known her but I realized that she was expressing the tears I could no longer will myself to show for Spirit. Her body pressed against mine and she cried harder, her hands held on to my jacket.

"What happened, Marie?"

"Spirit. I-I know you loved him. I saw him…"

I tightened my grip on her and the burning in my eyes returned. I closed them and rested my head on top of Marie's.

"It's going to be okay."

I said these words to reassure us both, though I didn't think that it helped much.

I wanted to hold on to every bit of hope and optimism I held, but I didn't believe a single word I had said.

The truth was that I didn't know if it would ever be okay.

A/N:

Reviews are so incredibly appreciated, I always look forward to reading them!

xo,

Jane

Happy Tuesday everyone, the week is almost halfway over!

This was more of a Stein & Marie bonding moment, she's going to be a really big advocate for him. Spirit and Kami has to happen though, warning everyone beforehand.