The Scientist, The Angel, and God

"Shinigami-sama." Stein's voice was little more than a whisper as he leaned against the mirror that the death god was reflected in.

"Stein-kun! How good to see ya, how are ya?" The being hopped back from the mirror a bit.

"I'm… I'm…" Giggles escaped the man. "I'm not well… Marie…"

"Have you done something to Marie-chan, Stein-kun?" Shinigami-sama asked quietly, knowing the answer, but also knowing that Stein needed to hear it.

"Not… not yet…" The man's control was slipping, that much was plainly obvious.

"And you won't, right Stein-kun?" The death god watched as Stein's hands slid over his face, almost as if the man was trying to force the giggles back into his own throat.

"Not… Marie…" A sadistic grin nearly cracked the scientist's face in half, laughter pouring from his throat. "Please… keep her… from me…"

Shinigami-sama looked sadly through the mirror. Marie stood beside him, out of sight of Stein, her hands covering her mouth, tears in her eye.

Stein continued on in a whisper. "You… have to… keep her safe… right? She's… she's…" His voice dissolved into giggles and he hit his knees, one hand gripping the side of his lab coat forcefully. "She's my… salvation…"

The tears streamed down Marie's face.

"Of course I will keep her safe, Stein-kun. But I want to keep you safe, too. You may not be a death scythe, but you are the most powerful meister to ever walk the halls of the DWMA."

Hysterical laughter answered him as Stein reappeared in the mirror on his feet. The man stared into the mirror and another sadistic grin split his face. "I want to dissect you, whoever you are. What are you hiding?" Laughter, high pitched and insane, rolled over the man again.

"Stein-kun." Shinigami-sama said quietly.

Another giggle. Marie collapsed on the floor, sobbing. "I should be with him right now." She whispered brokenly.

A scalpel approached the mirror and traced along the lines of the shinigami standing in it. Giggles leaked from the man's throat as he tilted his head to the side, the tip of the scalpel pushing against the mirror's surface.

"I want to know what's under that cloak and mask you wear, God." Stein giggled out.

"Stein-kun, focus." The death god said forcefully, and Marie trembled. She hated hearing that voice.

It didn't faze the scientist. His laughter became high pitched and frantic. Marie's scream tore through the Death Room as Stein brought the scalpel down on the back of his own hand, the being in the mirror momentarily forgotten.

With her scream the scientist's head jerked up from where he was staring down at the incision he was making.

"God? Do angels scream?" The scientist asked confusion on his face.

Shinigami-sama was quiet for a moment. "Stein-kun, you made an angel scream."

The scientist's brow furrowed. "Why, God?" His voice was childlike.

"Because angels detest violence and bloodshed."

The corners of his lips curved up as though he was a child who had just learned a secret. His childish voice whispered, "I want to see an angel."

Shinigami-sama hesitated, and then reached one of his oversized hands out to Marie. She took it and he pulled her into the mirror's view.

"You made this angel scream for you, Stein-kun." Marie trembled beneath Shinigami-sama's hands; his voice was still terrifying.

Stein's bloody hand reached out to the mirror, stroking where Marie's image was. "I don't want to make the angel scream anymore…" He whispered. "Can you forgive me, beautiful angel?"

Tears fell down Marie's cheek again and she nodded. 'I always wanted him to tell me I was beautiful… but not like this, not when he's delusional and lost…'

"YOU CAN'T CRY FOR ME EITHER!" Stein screamed at the mirror, slamming his fist against it."Tell her God! Your angel can't cry for me!" He shouted, slightly quieter, all of the childlike tones gone from his voice. His eyes clenched shut as his voice curved up into laughter a second later, the scientist gasping for breath.

Marie reflexively stepped back, Shinigami-sama supporting her as her knees nearly buckled. He moved her to the chair that appeared in the Death Room and had her sit. A glass of tea appeared next and she sipped it thankfully.

Shinigami-sama stepped back into the view of the mirror as Stein stopped laughing and looked at the mirror, seriousness painted across the scientist's features. He looked as if he had regained his control. His words betrayed that though.

"You're not God. God wouldn't subject his angels to look at a demon like me. That would be cruel." He said coldly, hatred twisting his features. "You are a fraud."

"I'm worse than God." Shinigami-sama said, his voice chilling. "I'm Death. I will come for your soul. I will devour it." Marie trembled.

Stein laughed. "If you're Death, then what did you show me? What poor creature did you force into the mirror? Someone else whose soul you're going to devour? Or was it really an angel?" Hysterical laughter burst from the man, and he ran his shaking hands through his hair. Blood dripped from his injured one, and he never seemed to notice, the droplet running down the side of his face, leaving a faint trail of red down his right cheek. Marie covered her mouth to keep her sobs quiet.

"It was you salvation, Stein-kun."

"My… salvation?" The man repeated a confused look on his face.

"Marie." The shinigami said quietly.

Stein's fist slammed into the mirror, and their view of him fractured. Blood ran from his knuckles and he hissed out, "She's mine! You cannot have her! I won't allow you to take her, Death!"

"You would deny even death itself, mortal?"

Marie suddenly realized what he was doing. 'He's forcing Stein to think! Thinking will pull Stein out of the madness if he has a problem to focus on that matters to him!'

Stein quoted from something, Marie wasn't certain what. " 'And with strange aeons even death may die.' "*

Shinigami-sama laughed. "That may be, but I will take her first, and then you." Marie stared wide eyed at him.

"You will NOT touch her!" Stein growled out. "You don't deserve an angel like her!"

"Do you?" The question made the man in the mirror freeze.

Shinigami-sama smiled behind his mask as Stein reached a hand up to turn the screw in his head, his hand shaking.

"No."

Shinigami-sama pressed the subject, trying to keep Stein rooted in the here and now. In his sanity. "Why don't you, Stein-kun?" His voice changed back to its high pitched, happy one.

"I… don't… she… she deserves a family… someone sane…" His voice cracked and flitted briefly into laughter as the scientist clung to his sanity.

Shinigami-sama glanced at Marie who was staring wide eyed at the mirror. With a smirk neither of them could see, he asked a question that had been needed to be asked for years.

"Do you love her?"

"I would die for her." Stein answered without hesitation, his voice steady now; one hand reached up to turn the screw in his head.

"Then you do love her, Stein-kun."

"I don't understand love." Stein seemed to be himself now, and was fussing over the blood that was still pouring from his mangled hand.

"You understand how you feel for Marie though." Shinigami-sama prompted. "You would die for her. You would send her away from you to keep her safe. You would fight by yourself to remain sane to make sure that she didn't have to fear you."

"Yes." He said, turning the screw.

"Then you love her." The scientist's face twisted in thought.

"If that is love… then I love her."

Marie sat stunned. 'Stein… loves me?'

"Stein-kun, take care of your hand. I'll send Marie home to you when she arrives."

"Yes, Shinigami-sama." The scientist turned and started to leave before looking back into the mirror.

"Stein-kun?"

"Please don't tell her, Shinigami-sama. I know she'll ask if we talked after I sent her away. I… I can't allow her to entertain the notion that we could have a future… not right now."

"I won't Stein-kun. You can tell her yourself, though there's no reason to keep it from her."

"You said it yourself, Shinigami-sama. I have to send her away from me to keep her safe. I won't be able to do that if she believes I love her… she won't allow me to." The man looked up at ceiling and pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, carefully lighting it to avoid straining his injured hand.

"Alright, Stein-kun."

The mirror rippled and the fractured image disappeared. Marie darted and wrapped her arms around the reaper, clenching his cloak in between them; his lack of a permanent physical form not bothering her. Her shoulders shook and the reaper patted her shoulder gently.

"Just remember, Marie-chan, that you don't know what the conversation was. You cannot act any differently."

She nodded, and released him, gathering her things and darted from the Death Room, heading home.

*Yes, that was a Lovecraft reference <3