Chapter Text
"So, we're not going to the cabaret club after all?"
"No, Stein." Spirit chuffed with a playful shove.
"But I could twist your leg."
"Very funny."
Stein brushed his hand to Spirit’s knuckles and readjusted to meet their palms in interlocked fingers. It was a comfortably tempered day as the setting sun blistered through the breeze, the two taking in faint music from the passing buildings and the smell of food and autumn on the wind. While the cobbled brick walkways were ever-familiar to the professor, that evening he allowed his weapon to surprise him on their catch-up reunion with their colleagues.
Alright, he would admit to himself, he wasn’t exactly interested in the decision-making of the like.
“It’s here,” Spirit slowed and gestured to move in front of his partner, reaching out and holding the door open for him.
A nod, and they were quick to notice the restaurant was characteristically empty for an awkwardly-timed Tuesday night, perfect for more open conversation and intimate focus undistracted by bustle; along the front wall, a few tables down from the entrance, three kindred souls were already chatting patiently.
“Did Naigus not make it?” Franken couldn’t help a grin, touching the edge of the table on his approach.
“Stein! Death Scythe!” Exclaimed Sid from the corner of the booth. “No, Naigus is attending an emergency operation tonight, something came up after a recent mission.”
“I hope everything’s alright,” Spirit worried aloud, gently patting Stein’s back before he scooted into the seat behind him; across from the knife meister and now next to Albarn sat a still-studious woman who rustled papers out of the way to make space at the table.
“We were actually just discussing it,” Azusa remarked. “The kids are sure to make a full recovery, but the fight they had to put up wasn’t anticipated to be at that caliber.”
“On a leisure trip away from home and yet you all still find work. It’s something to be remarked.” Stein made effort in slight jest to face the remaining guest, soft and anticipatory.
“Tell me about it…” Marie sighed, but her wavelength readjusted to ensure a sort of calm resolve.
“I can’t pretend I didn’t bring it up,” Sid chuffed. “You know the kind of man I am, I can’t help but keep my head in the game.”
“And I can’t help but entertain him.” Azusa straightened the files with two taps to the table.
Stein instinctively rolled his eyes with a balancing polite chuckle. “Of course.”
"It's been so long since we've seen you,” said Marie in ordered relay.
"I would say the same." Stein held back an amused sprawl making his place next to his weapon until Spirit pushed him in the shoulder.
"Shut up, Stein." He laughed.
“If I don’t laugh, I’ll cry.” Franken snapped sarcastically.
“It’s a relief to have you in good spirits.” Sid chimed, sitting back, the leather squeaking out from behind him.
Stein gestured outward generally with a lighthearted shrug. “There’s too much work to be done to maintain anything different."
“And that’s where he got his praise to give to us.” Yumi dared to joke, her words muffled in her cup.
Too caught up in the group’s banter, the waitress managed to startle the professor at his side.
“Welcome in, gentlemen. Could I get you something to drink?”
“Ah, just water,” Franken answered for them both. He slapped a firm hand onto Spirit’s shoulder and playfully wobbled him. “He’s my designated driver, you see.”
“Cut it out.” Spirit half-huffed.
“I gotcha…” She humored him. “Did anyone need any more time deciding?”
“Oh, Stein, are you familiar with the menu?” Marie asked, worry crossing her tone. “I just realized we forgot to ask.”
He smirked. “Spirit said he’d surprise me. That was apart of our deal tonight, that he’d take the lead.”
“And fortunately for you,” on cue, his weapon teased, “I also know what you like.”
“There’s that, too.”
One by one, the server took everyone’s dinner requests, navigating the occasional rhythmic raillery between the familiars. The dinner was a celebration of returns and recovery from their last group-assigned collaboration from almost a year ago to the date; Sid, of course, continued to be a local character who kept up his presence, but the likes of Azusa remained steadfast in her duties. Marie, despite her begged insistence against it, had been quickly swept back to Oceania after their last mission together.
She wrote to Stein, and she did receive letters back in his voice, but not in his handwriting.
Over their glasses, Barrett and Albarn got wrapped up in a usual back-and-forth about Shibusen on new students and policy and technique, Yumi occasionally dropping in to make note of history and comparison and statistics. Marie and Franken quietly listened to themselves, one of which was slightly uncharacteristic. In noticing her undoubtedly unintentional silence, Stein reached out an open palm with his elbow on the table, a gentle though disarming smile washed his countenance to assure the gesture. She shortly exhaled with the same reflection and accepted his fingertips, her thumb rubbing under his knuckles. There was a small lull in the partnering conversation upon noticing the exchange, but it naturally continued on after only a pause, laughter of the friends once again brightening the atmosphere.
In a moment, they were interrupted with their meals brought to them, dishes distributed noisily among the guests. Naturally, they all settled again, the warmth of their souls matching with each other in the warmth of the food.
Stein traced his plate and met a sushi roll with his chopsticks. “Which one is this one again?”
“Futomaki.” Spirit commented. “And then the one above it is the unagi.”
“Right.”
He bit a section of the roll with sincere thought.
“Hmm.” He pretended he didn’t want to smile. “Eel. You do know me.”
“Yeah, and you should know me, too—” Spirit moved to steal a bite from Franken’s plate, but was timely defended with a sturdy arm.
“Too well.” In the deflection, he reached over and jabbed his chopsticks into his partner's dish, popping a piece into his mouth without even acknowledging what it was.
“Oh,” Stein murmured with a revolted grin. “Cucumber, how typical of you.”
For once it was Spirit to wield a malicious giggle. “Checkmate!”
Something in Azusa’s wavelength shifted that brought Stein to refocus in front of him, Marie excusing herself abruptly from the table.
“I’ll be right back…” She tried for manners, but turned away too quickly before expressing her apologies.
“Marie…” Yumi moved to comfort her out of instinct, but could not make any sort of gesture fast enough out from behind both Death Scythe and the professor.
“I noticed she was quiet, but I must admit I figured you had it covered.” Sid remarked in reference to the doctor. “Do you know what’s going on, Stein?”
Azusa answered for him. “She’s still upset about the outcome of the battle with The Gale from last year.” She must have glanced to Stein after readjusting her glasses, but he was too focused on Marie’s departure. “She said she didn’t think she’d be ready to see you again, but I told her I thought she never would be.”
“Any time sooner is better than later. It doesn’t make it any more easy.” Spirit rubbed Stein’s back, to which he didn’t seem to react to in his thoughts.
“I wish I had known.” Barrett sighed.
"I'll check on her." Stein had long-concluded the second Marie had gotten up to step away.
"Oh-- Did you want me to go with you?" Albarn’s attention honed.
“No, I’ll find my way.”
“Ah, alright.”
Stein took balance from the booth and wandered away from the group, tracing the trail of the distressed soul to the rear of the restaurant; he tapped along the edge of the beverage bar for a sort of self-reassurance to meet a push door at the back wall.
“Marie?”
Quick to withhold a surprised gasp, the weapon paused to hold her breath. She let it go in mere seconds in its futility.
“I’m here, Stein.” She said forlorn.
He let the door close behind him, stepping to the bathroom counter next to her. Because he knew she wouldn’t do it, herself, he released a forced sigh.
“I don’t have to ask about the elephant in the room.”
Marie reflected his breath and brought a soft hand to his shoulder.
“I’m—”
“Don’t apologize.” He warned. Stein intended genuine cordiality, but if there was one thing he wasn’t going to accept, it was an apology for the wrong reasons.
He corrected his tone in an earnest questioning. “Why are you actually upset?”
Mjolnir had to return her hand to wipe away silent tears. “It’s just… You’re still you. I’m happy for you.”
Stein bit his tongue and held the pause. So, then, why are you still emotional about it? He desperately wanted to snap. He wasn’t mad at her, but he wanted to be. He knew the answers to his own question, it was just frustrating to him that she hadn’t actualized or accepted them for herself yet.
In their momentary interlude, the bathroom door swung open and halted with a start, surely at the sight of Stein.
"Oh!” A woman nervously chirped from behind him. “Uh, sir? You're in the women's room..."
"You don’t think I know that?" He barked, whipping around with unintended aggravation, the loop of the tall white cane in his hand slipping over his wrist in the jerk and clattering to the floor. He didn’t care that the stranger yelped and scurried away.
Marie picked up the stick and returned it to his fingertips, more shaken than she was before.
Stein sighed, re-centering himself, recollecting, and only hoped the death weapon would do the same. “I took my time to grieve. Have you?” He waved his hand in correction. “Don’t answer that, just think about it.” He took his orientation away from the counter top as he rubbed calloused fingers between his brow; Franken knew he had to steady her wavelength if he wanted her to listen to anything he had to say, and it surely wasn’t his intention to scare her into focus. The professor finally held out his hand and she took it after a sniffle.
“I don’t like thinking that a lot better could have happened for us. It’s counterproductive when the opposite is true, too.” He squeezed her grip. “I resent losing my sight, I don’t resent you.”
Eventually, she nodded in pair with a small handshake and an audibly trembling breath to confirm her crying, returning the squeeze. Stein moved to hug her and she hid her face in the smell of his cologne.
With the timing, he considered to joke. "Spirit asked if he could come with me to comfort you, but I think too many women's rooms have seen enough of Spirit Albarn." Marie instantaneously broke her tears with a huffed laugh.
“Oh, Stein…” She pulled away with a relaxed smile, the shattered pieces reforming within their resonance, looking up to his misplaced gaze.
“Come over to our place tonight after dinner and we can make sure everything gets put back in the right order.”
She hugged him once more.
“I would love that.”