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“I’m mad. Stein’s madness is contagious and I caught it from him at some point. That’s the only explanation.” Spirit huffed out in agitation as he paced-slash-stomped in circles around the couch in his living room. He had spent today’s lunch break being very… frisky with Stein.
At the time, he’d been too horny to really think beyond how goddamn hot the man looked, and how good he’d felt against him. But now, with the work-and-school-day over, with space away from Stein’s powerful presence, back at home with only his own mind for company, Spirit was stressing.
Outright panicking, really.
Because even if Stein truly didn’t intend to ever do anything to Spirit again like he’d done during their school days, that didn’t make the man trustworthy. He was still an emotionally stunted, dangerous, near-amoral, dissection-obsessed madman. Getting involved with Stein was a very bad idea. He was only serving as Stein’s current weapon because Lord Death had commanded it of him; Spirit’s protests when the being had first given that order had been loud, angry, and filled with colourful language to say the least.
When Spirit had learnt that Stein would be returning to Death City at Lord Death’s behest, he had vacillated between anxiety and apprehension, and all the way to outright terror. For both himself, and on his daughter’s behalf. Especially on Maka’s behalf. Because Spirit knew that if he had tried to warn Maka about Stein, she’d ignore him. She wouldn’t have listened to his warning that the man was untrustworthy and dangerous and she should never let herself be alone or vulnerable with him. She might have even sought Stein out to spite Spirit’s warnings - his baby girl was always eager to learn. She might have thought Stein (who was undeniably a highly intelligent person) was something of a kindred spirit.
Spirit had experienced no small amount of relief when he had noted that Stein was no more interested in Maka than he was in any other student. Stein had been quite content to focus on Spirit, and Spirit hadn’t needed to spare so much as a moment’s thought to conclude that that was for the best as far as Maka, and indeed all the other students of the DWMA, were concerned.
But now…
Now things were different. Stein’s focus was on him in an entirely different way. A way that had astonished and thrilled him at first, since Stein had never been interested in such things before, and had admitted he wasn’t interested in them with anyone but Spirit. That was a very flattering thing no matter who it was coming from. Stein had proven himself a quick learner in the matter of driving Spirit crazy with lust, which had not surprised him in the slightest.
“Stupid Stein! Stupid Stein’s clever hands! Stupid Stein’s newly dirty mind and his stupid hot mouth that talks about the sexy things!!” Spirit snarled aloud. He snarled again in frustration as his eternally horny brain began to dwell on those thoughts. He stomped to his bedroom and collapsed face-down onto the bed. He shoved his face into a pillow and screamed as loud as he could. It… kind of helped. So he did it a few more times before rolling onto his back and scowling angrily at the ceiling.
His cock was still in a perkily hopeful state as Spirit tried and only partially succeeded at pushing aside both memory and fantasy. The Stein-devil on his shoulder had so much more ammunition to work with now. Play our cards right and he’ll be on far more than our shoulder… The little voice purred, low and husky; just like Stein’s voice had been when Spirit had bitten down on the man’s neck earlier in the day.
“Shut up!” Spirit hissed irately. Then he flushed, acutely aware he was talking to himself. He glared down at his cock. “YOU never help anything, so for once in my life I am not listening to you. LA LA LA LA.” He sat up, loosely crossing his legs. He took a deep breath in, holding it for several moments, before letting it out gradually. It whistled as he pushed it out between pursed lips. While very few of his previous attempts at any sort of meditation had been successful, Spirit figured it couldn’t hurt to try right now. He continued the breathing pattern and just let his brain do what it wanted.
Twenty minutes later Spirit felt somewhat calmer, if not any more resolute on what the hell to do about the whole situation.
“Since the situation involves Stein, I should try and look at it like Stein would. And Stein would look at it logically.” Spirit muttered.
“Well, first things first I guess: he did try to talk to me about it normally. It was because I kept avoiding him that he laid a trap by dressing up. He knew I wouldn’t be able to resist my curiosity, and then once I saw him, my libido.” Spirit chewed on his lower lip as he considered this. Stein had tried to go about the situation in a perfectly normal, everyday-person kind of way. The actions he’d taken to lure Spirit to him, Spirit could admit, were also well within the bounds of ‘normal’ people’s behaviour. (It wasn’t any of those theoretical peoples’ fault that Stein had done it so much better than they possibly could have.)
“I… wouldn’t have expected Stein to be so… patient. I would’ve expected him to… uhm. Hmm. Probably to kidnap Maka actually, to get me to come to him.” Spirit realised aloud. He frowned, drumming his fingers restlessly against his thigh. Stein had basically said he’d leave Spirit alone. But Spirit knew to be wary of what Stein said; and more to the point to be wary of what he didn’t say. He hadn’t said anything about leaving Maka alone, after all. But the man definitely knew that he’d never gain any brownie points from Spirit if he did anything to Maka.
“...Stein will probably leave her alone. Doing anything to Maka would get him on my bad side, and he knows that. Actually, no. I’d just kill him if he did anything to Maka.” Spirit growled to himself, scowling furiously. He would. He absolutely would kill Stein without a second thought if the man came anywhere near Maka in a capacity that was not strictly as one of her current teachers.
If he did have to kill Stein, it would probably be best to chop off the man’s head entirely and put his brain through a blender, lest he become a zombie. Also best to eat the man’s soul himself, too - it was far too powerful a soul to risk any witch or kishin-spawn getting their hands on it. And if Stein had hurt Maka… then Spirit wanted to eat the bastard’s soul just for the pleasure of shitting it out. If that reddened his own soul a bit, then so be it. Under such circumstances, Spirit would consider his own hands - and soul - entirely clean of wrongdoing no matter what anyone else might think.
Lord Death wouldn’t be happy if he killed Stein, but that didn’t matter. Although the being did have a child of his own now - perhaps he might understand after all, if Spirit pointed out that Stein was quite likely to want to experiment on Kid, given the boy was half-reaper and therefore very much an unknown quantity to science.
Spirit mulled this over for several more minutes, before nodding decisively. “Lord Death wouldn’t mind if I murdered Stein for doing anything to Maka. It would be kind of inconvenient for whatever the hell he recalled Stein to the City for, but he would understand.” He concluded aloud. Plus, Spirit rather thought that Lord Death maybe had a bit of a soft spot for his baby girl. While the being did try to interact with the students of the DWMA regularly, so that he wasn’t simply some distant, faceless authority figure, Spirit had noticed over the years that the being definitely seemed to connect more with some students than others.
His thoughts drifted idly. His eyes narrowed. “Better not to assume, especially with Stein. I will make sure he understands that Maka is utterly off-limits.” Another decisive nod. “Ok. So. That's the first point. And several subpoints I guess. Anyway, the second thing is… Uhh. Hmm. Uhm. I guess the second thing is that Stein actually apologised.” Spirit fell silent, mind whirling.
He’d heard Stein apologise to people throughout their school years. Not a one of them, he knew, was sincere. The boy simply hadn’t understood enough about people to know why he should apologise for the things he said or did. Spirit had done his best to explain to Stein why he should apologise after saying or doing certain things, but in the end had given up when Stein had, after one such attempted explanation, summed up the matter in such a way that Spirit had found himself confused about why apologies mattered most of the time.
This apology, though. Stein had given this apology of his own volition, entirely unprompted. He’d been honest; that he was not sorry for the things he’d done, but for the consequences that happened as a result of his actions. He’d said that he regretted the loss of Spirit’s trust, the loss of the bond they’d had as weapon and meister. This apology had been real, and Spirit found that he treasured it. If the apology were a physical thing, it would be one of his most prized possessions, ranking below only his beloved photos of Maka and he cuddling and playing.
Spirit startled at this realisation. Because that was… pretty damned valuable.
“Well. My meister’s always been an idiot when it comes to people. I’ve always known that. And from pretty early on he treated me a bit differently than anyone else. That was one of the ways I knew that he actually felt something towards me.” Spirit mused. Then his jaw dropped in shock.
“MY meister?! Did I really just think of Stein as MY meister?!” Spirit’s eyes unfocused as he stared at the wall, mind very far afield. He… thought of Stein as being his meister? Even now? After what the man had done to him, after the way he’d betrayed Spirit’s trust, the way he’d betrayed their bond?
Spirit absentmindedly lay back down. He rolled onto his side, then his stomach, then to his side again. He didn’t notice his eyes closing as he fell asleep, brain still wrestling with the notion that he in any way, shape, or form considered Stein to be his.
When Spirit woke the next morning, nearly an hour before his alarm would’ve gone off anyhow, he awoke certain of a few things.
First, that Stein was his. That was… probably not a healthy way to think about it, Spirit knew. He thought Stein would understand though. Because it was not a one way street. Stein was his, but he was also Stein’s. Stein’s favourite lab rat. Stein’s weapon. Stein’s… something. They’d figure it out.
Second, that whatever was happening with Stein now, he wanted it. He would probably freak out again, in the future. He would worry, would stress, would question his sanity. But he’d done all those things before, for other things that mattered less to him than this did.
Third, that as silly as it was, he was not going to be outdone by Stein. Stein’s opening gambit in this… this whatever-it-was, had made his head spin. But no matter how quick a learner Stein was, the realm of lust was his forte. He had years of experience in it. He would not let matters lie as they were, with Stein having a point over him on the Sexies Scoreboard. He would find a way to bring the man to his proverbial (and perhaps literal) knees, and assert his dominance in this matter.
Fourth, that a date was in order. Maybe. Depending on some things. But if a date was going to be in order, what kind of date would a man like Stein like? Spirit pondered this intensely as he headed into the shower. Normal things would not appeal to Stein. Things like going to the movies together and holding hands and whatnot. Or… maybe they would? If he plotted out an “ordinary” date, but presented it as a practical experiment/educational type deal, Stein might be intrigued. He mentally shelved that notion for further consideration at a later date.
As Spirit exited the shower almost forty-five minutes later, he was considering the fifth thing. The fifth thing he was sure of was that he didn’t want to fuck this up, as he’d done with his marriage. He would shove his emotional awkwardness where the damned sun didn’t shine and talk about things with Stein. He would not run away and avoid things, the way he had spent five weeks avoiding Stein after the precipitating incident to this whole thing. That would be difficult, he knew. He wasn’t used to it.
But… with Stein, there was an advantage to this approach: many people (himself included, he knew) might jump to conclusions in conversations but not say anything, leading to misunderstandings. Stein wouldn’t do that, because if Stein didn’t understand he had no problems with asking for clarification. Stein also had no problem with offering clarification if asked to.
Stein had wanted to know if he was actually interested in sex, in the things he’d mentioned while tipsy and loose-tongued. Of course he was bloody interested in sex. He’d never not been interested in sex. That facet of himself had gotten him into all sorts of trouble countless times in his life. So, yes, he was interested in the things he’d mentioned to Stein while tipsy.
But he thought that he might also be interested in something more than sex. He didn’t know if that was something Stein might want, though. The man had only just started having a functional libido. Any kind of romantic relationship might still be entirely beyond him. Spirit was not, after all, sure if he wanted a romantic type relationship with Stein. It was something to talk about. Talking about things was going to be very important, even if this new relationship only ended up being them screwing each other’s brains out occasionally.
Spirit nodded. He had made his mind up. Now it was time to get dressed, and head out to work. He regarded his normal work clothes. What he normally wore to work was respectably professional. Even after all these years, he truthfully still wasn’t entirely fond of it. The clothes themselves were comfortable, he’d made sure of that. He looked good in them, he knew. But today, he didn’t want to merely ‘look good’. He wanted Stein’s attention. He wanted to seize the man’s attention with the same vice grip that Stein had grabbed his with yesterday. The problem with that was that the things he suspected would most easily get Stein’s attention were absolutely not professional work attire.
Spirit pursed his lips as he considered Stein’s outfit from yesterday. It had been eye-catching for a few reasons. One of which was possibly applicable here - the colours. The bright red and pitch black of Stein’s outfit had caught the eye. Spirit also, regrettably, could not shimmy into some skintight pants and still retain a professional look. (Well, not for the kind of work that he did, at any rate)
He rummaged through his drawers and closet, tossing potentials onto the bed. After going through everything, he had what he considered to be frustratingly few options available to him, scattered on the unmade bed. Hmmm. He needed to go shopping. It had been a while since he’d gone through all his clothes, so he wasn’t actually certain if all this stuff even fit him properly any more. Muttering in irritation, Spirit put on his normal work attire. That devil outfit Stein had been wearing had likely not been put together in a single day (though Spirit didn’t doubt Stein was capable of doing so if he felt like it). “Clothes shopping this weekend.” Spirit declared to himself. He was going to make that meister’s eyes fall out of their sockets. He snickered to himself as he idly imagined that; knowing Stein, the man would be delighted by the phenomenon of his eyes managing to fall out of their sockets simply from viewing something.
As Spirit locked the front door behind him and headed to the Academy, he was paying only the bare minimum attention to his surroundings as he trod the familiar route. His mind was on other things. His mouth curled into a hungry, toothy, predatory grin. His gait was less “normal walk” than it was “predator’s stalk”.
He had a meister to catch. A crazy genius to intrigue. A dangerous man to challenge to a game where the stakes were hearts; because he rather thought that their souls were already taken.
He had no intention of failing. He was a weapon. He was Stein’s weapon. Stein was his meister.
It was time, and long past time, to indulge the darker instincts that were inherent to weapons. Because those were what would most surely catch Stein’s attention. Stein was not a tame thing. And no matter how long and how well Spirit himself had pretended to be a tame thing for, he wasn’t. There were many reasons that he and Stein worked so well together as weapon and meister.
There was nobody around to see Spirit Albarn’s eyes luminesce faintly, to see his pupils dilate and narrow to a vertical slit for a scant heartbeat.
Not all witches were weapons. But by their very origin, all weapons were a kind of witch.