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sesecretsanta · 15 days ago

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@bcbdrums Happy Secret Santa! The original gifter unfortunately couldn't really make it, so old man yaoi to the rescue haha (we meet again haha)

This was originally going to be a little sillier but that wasn't really working out, so they look a little cooler now haha (can't say it couldn't happen in canon at some point hah)

Bonus doodle that I saved and an unrelated snippet below:

Spirit has no idea if Stein is doing it like this intentionally haha

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His steps start to slow down shortly after entering the room, eyebrows furrowing at his meister cackling to himself in the corner – quite literally as Franken has nearly wedged himself against the wall with the chair facing away from him. "What on Earth are you doing back here?"

"Oh, Senpai –" Spirit preemptively pockets his hands into his suit while Stein turns to face him, a suspicious look of giddiness and a handful of… beans? "– Did you need something?"

"I wasn't really going to say yes, but now I need to know what twisted experiment I'm going to be stopping now."

Another chuckle twitches across his mouth before Stein wheels himself on over, presenting the small dried beans sitting in his palm as- wait why are they moving.

"Cydia saltitans." He watches on in horrid fascination at the tiny hopping legumes and presence of their scientific name.

"More commonly known as Mexican jumping beans." He continues to watch on in horrid fascination when an entire see-through container of them is lifted up to him. "Well, more specifically the larva of the jumping bean moth, neither of which actually being legumes."

Spirit finally remembers to blink again while gawking back at Franken's giddy smiling. "…Jumping… beans?"

"Yes. Here, hold some."

One can not be entirely sure if it was by sheer bafflement or just the helpless willingness to go along with whatever plan his meister dropped upon him that Spirit finds himself already holding out one of his hands, beans bestowed upon his palm, yet here he is anyway. Lost and four jumping beans richer like Jack before having to face a rather cumbersome magic beanstalk.

"Well.. consider me bean-boozled…"

"No, too obvious," Franken hums disapprovingly.

Spirit blinks at him again. "…Sorry, I guess I jumped to that too quickly, I think I can do moth better than that low-hanging fruit."

In an instant, Stein snickers into one of those mischievous grins of his, which for him was the equivalent of an uproarious applause. Looks like he's still got it.

————

Yes, not only did I have the amusing thought that Stein likes to collect bugs (the weirder, the better), but that of course Spirit keeps bad dad jokes up his sleeve and Stein actually delights in groan-inducing puns hahaha. He always felt like a bit of a trickster to me, so the two make a very silly duo.

(And what's the deal with the jumping beans, anyway?)

Oh hey, because my brain is truly unmitigated chaos, here's some other ideas I thought about doing, 'cause why not:

Spirit is finally going to prank Stein back after all these years he's endured, however Stein can already see him coming and always pranks back harder.

Stein is temporarily taking care of guinea pig, and decides to tease Spirit by pretending it's for an experiment.

Stein helps tie Spirit's hair up in a ponytail like how he used to wear one, out of curiosity. (I wonder how Stein would look in a man bun...)

Spirit sees himself as a fox, but Stein sees him as a hound. I had to stop myself from doing something werewolf-related again and that one scene in the anime isn't helping.

Stein is indifferent about Christmas, but loves sweaters and believes there's an art to the ugly ones. Coincidentally this makes it easier and harder to gift to him because he is surprisingly picky about them sometimes (could be Spirit's tastes hah).

Speaking of sweaters, it would be really funny to put these two in one of those two-person sweaters.

Stein probably has an entire collection of sweaters he just stitches together as a hobby. Say what you will about the man, he could probably sow anything at this point.

Do you think Stein would be one of those sweater-knitting grandpas.

Okay I'm losing track of myself again haha, hope this silly assortment is enjoyable!

I will say though, I also had an idea a little while ago where Stein takes Spirit to see a strange ram witch because Spirit has been cursed so that he can't leave his scythe form. Went a little something like the witch asking for one of the screws in Stein's coat pocket, which he swears wasn't there before, and the witch then uses it to guide them in the right direction. A strange but helpful fellow, that one.

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sesecretsanta · 18 days ago

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SESecret Santa 2024

Hello! @memethebum and I collaborated for this year's SESecretSanta. This gift was written for you, @not-so-scandalous! I hope you enjoy it!

You can find the fic here: Wesley Evans Interrupts His Brother's Date

Thank you to @sesecretsanta for organizing this event. Happy Holidays everyone!

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sesecretsanta · 21 days ago

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The Heist

A Soul Eater fanfic. Read on: AO3

A/N: For the Grigori Wings Discord Server's Secret Santa @sesecretsanta (finally)! My secret gift is for Ku-Hakku and they wanted something "where everyone is a white glove thief," and provided the song Ren'ai saiban as inspiration. This was also partly inspired by The Newsies, and of course, by the canon. I hope this short tale provides some enjoyment for you. Merry (late) Christmas!

The Heist

When he heard the gentle action of the door’s hinges, he held his breath within his place of concealment. The almost imperceptibly light step of a woman’s shoes on carpet followed, and then the measured release of the doorknob as the light from the hallway vanished. But for the beat of his heart, it was silent in the upstairs study of the mansion where the party was being held that evening.

Soul parted his lips, allowed his held breath to slowly slip out, and then with painful slowness inhaled again through his nose. He peered through the narrow gap in the drapes into the dark of the room, and as the expected figure stepped into view he found his posture automatically straightening in respect.

A lithe, slim form silently crossed the carpet, deliberately avoiding the thin panel of moonlight that Soul was careful to leave unbroken across the floor. Her black evening gown only served to accentuate the natural beauty that Soul had been admiring from afar for weeks throughout his investigation, and it was with further amazement that he watched her produce a small lockpick kit and calmly begin working on the wall safe that been hidden behind a portrait of his employer.

He had determined after weeks that she was working alone. And the thefts didn’t seem to be for money or leverage, as the stolen goods were just hidden away and forgotten afterward. And all that was ever left behind was her unique calling card - one that sought to frame him and his organization.

He had enough to arrest her now, but it wouldn’t answer the questions burning in his mind. And so he waited - waited until this time he would catch her red-handed and could perhaps find out why.

A single blonde pigtail fell over her shoulder as she tucked the papers into a black envelope, carefully secured the valuable documents away in her purse. And then she removed a tiny, glittering item to leave behind. Her calling card and the symbol of his department – a tiny, crystal scythe.

Soul took another breath as he watched her close the safe, listened to the soft click of the lock. Her black-gloved hands were soundless as she replaced the portrait of the grim-looking owner of the mansion, and then as she shouldered her purse and turned to go, the detective made his move.

“Maka Albarn,” he said, slowly pushing the drapes open.

She startled as the room was flooded in moonlight, and Soul watched her verdant eyes as they traveled from his feet up to his face as he stepped into view. A moment later her scowl was concealed as his shadow fell over hers, and his hands settled into his pockets while hers balled into fists at her sides.

"Curious choice of calling card," he continued as she glared at him. "Are you trying to frame me specifically, or just imply that my department is corrupt?"

She didn't answer immediately, and as the silence lingered Soul's awareness spread beyond the dark confines of the room to the sounds of the party beyond. The band had shifted into a slow jazz number, and the sounds of conversation that had been previously bolstered by alcohol were dwindling into something more subdued.

"What did you do to deserve the nickname anyway?" she finally replied.

Soul let his grin broaden to conceal his surprise. "So this is about me? I'm chuffed, Miss Albarn."

"Don't call me that," she fairly spat back. "And don't flatter yourself. This isn't about you."

"Then what is it about?"

"What do you care? Shouldn't you be cuffing me, Detective?"

Soul fought the rising heat under his collar and maintained his grin. "Oh, don't worry. I will. But I'm curious. Why would the daughter of a rich and powerful family who work for an even more rich and powerful family steal from them and then try to frame me of all people for the crimes?"

"It's not about you," she replied, her voice even more level than before.

Soul held his tongue then, considering. He didn't need to know the motive; he'd caught her red-handed, and the evidence from the prior thefts would all stack up neatly in court. But he hadn't risen to the rank of detective just to lock people up.

"I'll pretend my feelings aren't hurt," he continued as he considered his next tactic, finally stepping toward her to make it official. "Maybe you'll give me a second chance, though? You think your father will mind if the arresting officer makes social calls on his daughter until he bails you out?"

This elicited a scoff and a deeper scowl out of the beautiful thief, and he moved to her side as she surprisingly, obediently, put her hands behind her back.

"We haven't even officially met."

"Oh, come on. We've talked at all those parties your dad and the boss like to throw," Soul countered.

"Stop bringing up my father."

Her tone was one of near-fury, and it gave Soul pause. He let the handcuffs remain heavy in his jacket pocket and shifted his stance to look at her. She jaw was set in anger as she gazed up at him, and Soul's mind began to turn over the facts. The cogs were beginning to align, but he still didn't have a real answer.

"This isn't about me. This is about your father."

"No duh."

Her father, Chief of Police and the one responsible for the private security of the mayor, had early in his career gained the nickname 'the scythe' for his quick and rapid execution of justice when he was a mere detective. Soul had followed in his footsteps and now bore the moniker since the fairer Albarn's father had moved on to higher duties. Those under the senior Albarn's command were sometimes called 'the scythes' as well.

"Why..?" Soul took a step back, crossed the moonlit carpet of the study and moved toward a baby grand piano opposite. "Why would you want to frame your father for stealing from his boss?"

"Why do you call him his 'boss'?" she challenged.

Soul paused, reached up to grab his lapels as his face fell, and then leaned against the piano.

"You know they're all corrupt, too. The department has been corrupt since before you joined, and you're still working with them after you've found out," she continued. "Why?"

Soul's glinting grin finally fell to a frown. "It's not as simple as you think."

"What's not simple about the abuse of power for personal gain?"

"When the gain is also the protection of the city's interests—"

"So you're really okay with all of it?" she said, eyes blazing in frustration. "I thought you'd be different, seeing as you weren't born in this dystopia."

Soul lifted his hand from the piano's frame as if it had bitten him and tugged at his lapels again.

"Sometimes we have to make a difference one person at a time before we can make a lasting change."

Maka stepped toward him and Soul stiffened.

"And sometimes one person can make a big change. That's what I'm doing."

"By trying to frame your father?"

She was silent, and as Soul stared down into her bright eyes he realized – she wasn't trying to escape. She didn't even seem nervous.

"No... That was only part of your plan. You...you wanted to be caught," he said, his brow rising.

Maka held his gaze, but he watched her breath still.

"That's it..." Soul's grin returned, his white teeth shining especially bright in the moonlight. "By leaving the crystal scythes as a message, you put suspicion on your father, and the public and media scrutiny falls to him. But if that doesn't work and the mayor shuts it down, you being caught gives you a platform. Because the daughter of the police chief stealing from the mayor would be the biggest news story of the year!"

Maka continued to stare, almost statuesque with her expression frozen and her pupils contracted. Soul could feel the tension in the room like a chord suspended.

"And if your plan fails?" he finally asked with a grin.

"It won't," Maka said defiantly.

Soul chuckled, and Maka's eyes narrowed.

"You forgot about the wild card in the deck..." Soul said as he straightened his posture. "What if I let you go?"

He watched Maka's eyes widen in genuine shock. She clearly hadn't expected any other outcome.

"You..! But..."

"I don't have to tell anyone I found you here tonight. I can let you walk away, keep on committing the robberies. While I draw this investigation out for years."

The change in the young woman was evident even under the moonlight. Her cheeks had begun to redden, her shoulders stiffen. No longer was she brave in the face of her chosen fate, but starting to panic. However no sooner had Soul processed this than she had quickly reached into her purse. His instincts registered weapon and had him moving before he saw what she wielded. He dodged to the left as something heavy came down on the closed lid of the piano, and as she turned to follow through he grabbed her wrists, hard.

"A...book!?"

A large book was held steadily in one of Maka Albarn's hands as she glared daggers up at him, her teeth bared in anger.

"Pig!" she said, her voice breaking the whisper she'd kept it at throughout their conversation.

She tried to wrench free, but Soul stepped closer and pulled up her arms, limiting her movement.

"You didn't let me finish," Soul said, momentarily breathless for the surprise. "I could...let you go. And then give you a hand."

Maka's lips parted. She blinked up at Soul in shock, and the tension gradually began to leave her arms. Soul released his grip on her wrists and they both took a step back, putting a more comfortable space between them.

Soul reached up to straighten out his jacket. "Sorry to hear about the divorce, by the way."

Maka's hand lifted faster than he could blink.

"Ow!" Soul exclaimed as the spine of the book came down on his head.

"Pigs, all you men."

"Would you cease and desist already?" he said, this time snatching the book out of her hand and pushing it across the piano lid out of reach. "Now listen and think about this. With a partner on the inside, you can gather the kind of evidence that will actually help you when you go to the press."

Maka stared, and Soul watched emotions play across her face in rapid succession, the most readable of which was suspicion. Soul simply waited, and when she finally spoke her voice lacked the razor edge of judgment it had previously held.

"You'd betray them?"

"We all want the same thing in the end, don't we? Just to live in a safe and happy society. I think of it as...helping them work toward their goals in a more progressive way."

Maka crossed her arms and continued to look at him appraisingly.

"After all... I became a detective in the first place to make a difference, Miss Al—... Maka."

Maka raised a skeptical eyebrow, but Soul only grinned and stuck out his hand.

Maka shifted her stance, keeping her arms firmly crossed. "How do I know I can trust you?"

Soul considered. "I guess you don't. But...let me give you a chance at least, to see who I am."

He kept his hand extended as Maka studied him. He turned his head slightly to bring his face out of shadow, the moonlight spilling between them.

"I could be your scythe."

A tiny, pensive smile formed on her lips. And as she slowly reached out her hand to shake his, he couldn't help but notice again how lovely she was. His own smile grew.

"You've got a deal, Detective Evans."

Soul chuckled again. "Then...may I have the next dance?"

"What?" Maka said with a slight start, pulling back her hand.

"The night is still young," Soul said, gesturing toward the door that would lead back to the ballroom, the soft sounds of slow jazz filling the room as silence fell.

Maka brushed a pigtail back over her shoulder as a light slowly filled her eyes that outshone the moon. And when Soul offered his arm, she took it.

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sesecretsanta · 22 days ago

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Se Secret Santa Gift for @worldismyne

I had many gifts to finish up this holiday and I'm happy to get this one finished on Christmas!

House Sitting!

“There! Last one!”

Patty smacked her hand a few times against the side of the bookcase, causing Soul to tense up his shoulders. They had just spent the better part of two hours trying to repair the now somewhat awkwardly balanced fixture. They hadn’t even figured out how they were going to get the books back into the order they were in before the bookcase fell.

“Think she’s going to notice?”

The young woman leaned sideways towards Soul, peering up at him from under the brim of her hat. Her large, happy eyes made him want to say that maybe perhaps no, Maka wouldn’t notice. Though, the severe damage to the right side of the bookcase screamed otherwise. His lips curled upward into an anxious smile, crimson eyes darting away from hers and back at their rather sloppy handiwork.

“... Oh yeah, without a doubt.” He cleared his throat with a slight cough, trying to buy himself a little time to get his thoughts in order. “They’re never going to let us house-sit again. You know that, right?”

Patty knelt down to one of the many stacks of books on the floor and began to sift through them. After a long minute or two of silence she picked up a red book from the stack.

“Weeeeeell, we better get them back up on the shelf. Start picking up the red ones, those go at the top!”

Soul watched her and responded with a slow blink, his head tilting to one side ever so slightly as if to hear her better the second time. “What do you mean the red ones go at the top?”

“The red ones go at the top. They’re first in the rainbow.” Patty replied nonchalantly as she continued her search for all of the books with red covers.

Soul sat there for a moment, processing what was said to him before opening his mouth to speak. “I think it’s supposed to be in alphabetical order, not color order.”

Patty snorted through her nose and began to place the red books onto the top shelf. “That’s silly, where would the ones that start with numbers go?”

“They’d be first.” Soul replied, picking up a book off of one of the many stacks. The title ‘101 Ways to organize your home’ in bold letters had caught his eye when he was originally searching the pile. “See, this one starts with a one, so this goes first.”

“Yeah but the number one is spelt first letter O, so shouldn’t it go in the O’s?” Patty didn’t skip a beat before continuing. “That book is yellow anyway, so it comes after orange.”

“Why would I put it there?” Soul asked, a hint of exasperation leaking into his voice. “The numbers either go first or last…”

He trailed off as he glanced through one of the stacks that had predominantly number led titles, some of them using roman numerals and others using the more common arabic numerals. Did the roman numeral ones go with the rest of the numbers or was patty right, should some of these go where their respective letters are? Would most of these go into the ‘I’ category?

Patty was almost done sorting through all of the red books on the shelf when he finally looked back at what she was doing. They were going in ascending size height wise but not width wise. Was that important? What was he even doing thinking about it this hard? He had lived with Maka for years when they were still students at the Academy, so why couldn’t he remember how she organized her books?

He simply never paid it much attention. It wasn’t like he was taking anything off of the shelves in what used to be their old apartment’s living room. He had kept any and all books that he was interested in on a smaller set of shelves in his room.

“Uh oh.” Patty’s voice inflected upwards as she spoke the words, like she wasn’t as bothered about this mishap as Soul was. “Would this go in with the white? Or the pink? What do you think?” The young woman held up a book with what could be best described as a tie-dye cover containing white, pink, yellow, and green.

The book was mostly pink? It was hard to tell. He shook his head a little as if trying to get the thoughts out of his mind all together. Why was he humoring her? Alphabetical made the most sense.

“That doesn’t matter, what letter does the title start with?” Soul asked reaching out to shuffle around a few of the books that Patty already got on the top shelf.

“It’s called ‘III Fashion of the ‘aughts’.” She read off the title with a grimace.

Soul paused, trying to figure out where he himself would have placed it on his own. With the numbers, right? Or with the ‘I’s? He didn’t get much time to think about the idea when a sound from the front door had the pair freeze in place.

“What time is it?” Patty asked, deciding to just shove the rest of the books onto the shelf as the door-knob jiggled. Someone outside was likely also struggling to use the key in the lock.

“Like, seven, I thought their plane didn’t get in until eight.” He joined her in the frantic task of getting all of the books off of the floor. They could at least buy some time by moving them back.

Soul heard Patty giggle from behind him, it was times like these he hated that he couldn’t tell if it was something she did out of nerves or not.

“We’re so screwed.” She shoved the last of the books onto a shelf, fiddling around and moving one of them to fit on another just as the door had forced its way open.

A victorious Black Star bounded into his apartment with Maka trailing close behind him.

“I’m here~!” Black Star dropped his bags behind the couch and moved to remove the jacket and scarf Maka had forced him to wear when they landed. A Star like him could always handle the cold but it wasn’t really worth the argument, not when he could simply not wear it out next time when she was at work.

He was so happy to be back after what only he could deem a boring trip that he hadn’t yet noticed the tight smiles on Soul and Patty’s faces, nor the slight mess that still resided in his living room as he bounded his way to the kitchen for a glass of water.

Maka, on the other hand, had stood behind the couch for a bit longer and very easily pieced together what she believed had happened. She shot Soul a look that he thought was unreadable and followed her Fiance into their Kitchen.

“Wait.” Black Star had gently grabbed Maka by the shoulders so he could get past her. He had been staring at the other two while taking his drink of water and things were starting to click in his mind.

“They’re all in the wrong places?!” He lamented, grabbing the back of his head in exasperation. “That’s not the order I left them in, Maka, I swear, I fixed it all up and placed everything back where it belonged before I left.”

He rushed forward and grabbed Soul by the collar of his shirt melodramatically. “What happened here? How? My hard work… of all people to lay it to waste, someone so close to me…”

Soul’s eyebrow twitched, not too happy with how suddenly his personal space had been invaded but not entirely sure what to say about the situation either. He looked to Maka for a little help, in the hopes she’d call him back a bit, but instead she seemed rather focused with something on the counter.

“We were playing Tekken and he beat me, so I got up and told him that it didn’t matter because I could do a cartwheel and he couldn’t-” Patty mimicked the events out with her hands, doing a rolling motion with them and then a ‘Boom!’ “My foot hit the side of the bookcase a little hard and it totally exploded, just everything came crashing down.”

The blue-haired young-man deflated as he heard Patty tell the story, already preparing himself for an evening of fixing their mistake himself. “I can’t believe this would happen, I figured you’d both be perfect for this job.”

Black Star picked up a few books from the shelf that was at his eye-level and collected them in his arms so he could rearrange them. “You had it in the wrong order, it's a weird pink cover first, green, green, blue, yellow…”

Patty nodded her head intently as he listed off the order the books should have been in. If she was actually taking proper note of what he was saying was truly unknown but she took down what could be believed to be notes on her arm in the glitter pen she always kept in her pocket.

Soul inched away from the now distraught Black Star and into the kitchen where Maka was still focused on something. He cleared his throat awkwardly to get her attention and once her gaze was directed at him, he felt even more uncomfortable about everything.

“Listen,” he started. “Uh, I can come back tomorrow and fix it in the right order, or we can buy you a new shelf, it seems pretty…” Soul trailed off, bobbing his head side to side as he came up with the words he wanted.

“He forgot to put in at least six screws.” Maka commented as her hands lifted up a small paper dixie cup with said screws in it. “We bought it secondhand and it was missing some, so we bought some from the hardware store. They look different than the original so I think in his panic to not miss our flight, he thought they went to something else.”

Soul nodded, taking the information in. It would explain why an otherwise sturdy looking piece of furniture would just crumple to the ground with not much force applied to it.

“I’ll take you up to the new bookcase though. It’s been knocked over a few times in the last few months anyway, with it being so cold outside. Black Star has been doing some of his exercising in the living room and you know how he gets.” Maka set the cup down with a chuckle.

“Honestly, there hasn’t been a proper order to those books since before the first time he managed to knock it all over. I’ve just been letting him put things back where he thinks they go. He gets so upset each time it happens that I don’t think I have the heart to tell him otherwise. The effort to fix it and try his best to reorganize has been enough.”

Soul chuckled, relief filling his entire being as he listened to his meister. “Yeah, we’ll either buy it for you then or pay you back for it. I know we should have texted but we both panicked. Kinda uncool, that was the knee jerk reaction.”

Maka opened her mouth to reply but before they got the chance to, the bookcase that Black Star and Patty were in the process of rearranging fell to pieces once again. In silent defeat, Black Star dropped to his knees and held his head in his hands.

Patty looked back at the pair in the kitchen grinned sheepishly. “Oops! Maybe the eight volume Encyclopedia should have gone on the bottom shelf.”

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