After a few days, I was feeling a bit better. Stein had told me just to stay in the infirmary, and to not do anything. But it seemed that my friends ignored that completely. They came in everyday during lunch and brought me food, careful not to give me too much. It seemed that my stomach had shrunk a considerable amount when I was...

Where had I been again? I set the book I had been trying to read down, looking at my hands. There were bandages on them to cover a few of the scars that I got from... where had I gotten them from? My head started hurting, and I placed my fingers on one of my temples.

"(Y/n)?" Stein's voice said, and he rolled over on his chair, pulling the curtain back a little to see me. He had a cigarette in between his lips, and he clicked his screw a few times, looking me over. "Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded, the headache starting to go away. He rolled his chair next to my bed as I lifted my book again, my hands quivering a little. He had a teacher text book in his hands, and he turned a page as I looked at the page of my book. It was a textbook as well, the one for Crescent Moon class, and Stein nodded in approval.

I took the pad of paper next to my bed and the pencil on top of it, and scrolled a note on it in my (neatness of handwriting) letters. Stein took the notepad and read what I had written.

We had established that my voice wasn't going to come back any time soon, for unknown reasons. So we had developed this way of communication for me over the past day or so. It had been Soul's idea, during my first and so far, only class.

Stein looked up me. "You asked why I wasn't teaching class today?" he said. I nodded. He sat back, his lips curving up a little in a smile. "Very clever." He said, and turned another page in his textbook. "Marie is teaching the class today. She's better at the more 'lesson from the book' type of stuff." He said. I looked at him, wondering why he had one of the textbooks.

"I'm better at teaching things about the body or fighting." He said, and sighed, tapping his cigarette on an ash tray on the window sill. "So, Marie had me stay here in the infirmary and study one of the books so maybe one day, I can teach one of the book lessons." He said. He grinned a little. "She's a little crippled by the book ,in my opinion. I teach from personal experience, but it seems that she thinks that the students need a certain amount of book education." He said, beginning to ramble a bit.

I looked back down at my book, reading a few lines about resonating with a partner. I looked out the window, watching rain spatter the glass, as Stein continued speaking, starting to talk about dissections. I wondered when I would find a partner? If anyone would be my partner...

"Hello!" a voice said, and I looked up to the open curtain around my bed to see the door slamming open to show my friends. It was getting cold outside during the day, even raining today, so all of my friends wore extra coats or something of the such. Except for Black Star, who had insisted yesterday that he didn't need coats because rain couldn't defeat him.

Mari, who was wearing her usual all black with a striped grey and green scarf ran up to me, crushing me with a hug. "How are you feeling today, (Y/n)?" she asked, pulling away and looking at me with her blue eyes. I had gotten more used to them, the blue only being a kind of veil over her actual color, which she hadn't shown me yet. I knew it was something dark though, but I didn't know if I wanted to see it.

I shrugged, looking over to where Stein had been sitting, only to see my notebook at the edge of my bed with the pencil on top of it. I took it into my hands and wrote in big letters, "Better". Everyone smiled and took spots around my bed.

They started talking about class as they took out their lunches. I watched them, pretending to read another few sentences in my textbook. "(Y/n), I brought a lunch for you." Mari said, and brought a little bento, smaller than the others forward, and handed it to me. She handed me a fork, something much easier to use after we'd discovered that I was wretched at using chopsticks.

I opened the top of the lunch, and saw simple rice with the same kind of meat Mari had had on the first day. I looked up at her, smiling. I started eating, trying to pay attention to what everyone was saying, but I was a little caught up in my food.

When I finished, and everyone else did too, they all looked at me. "We want to get you a partner." Maka said, and I looked up at her. I looked at everyone else with wide eyes, not sure if I'd heard correctly. I didn't know if I would be a bad partner, I had no idea if I could even fight properly. I knew that there were classes after school and what-not, but... a partner already.

"(Y/n). Your face is green." Soul said, and I looked up at him. "Don't tell us you're going to throw up again?" I smiled, and they laughed a little. I hid my shaking hands in my lap. A partner though?

"Come on, (Y/n)!" Mari said, and grabbed my hands, pulling me up from the bed and then pulled me towards the door. "Stein suggested it anyway, so there'll be some weapons waiting!" she said.

Everyone followed, and I tugged at Mari, trying to get her attention as she pulled me out of the infirmary door. She wouldn't stop, so I tugged on her arm harder. We were already a little ways down the hallway, but she paused, looking back at me, everyone stopping.

"What?" she asked, her shimmering blue eyes cheerful. I looked down at my feet, only a pair of socks on them on. She laughed, and scratched her head. "Oops! Look's like we forgot your shoes." She said. She looked at the group, and Kid raised his hand.

I met his golden eyes, feeling heat rise in my cheeks. "I'll go get them." He said. He turned and walked quickly back down the hallway to the infirmary.

As we waited for him to come back, Maka told Mari that her, Liz, Patti, and Tsubaki had a class that they needed to get to get to, and that they needed to go. Mari nodded. "Have fun." She said, smiling.

Liz sighed. "Fun? How do you have fun with training?" she asked. I watched them as they turned and left. Now it was just Mari, Soul, and Black Star. They were chatting about something quietly, laughing lightly. I saw Kid coming back down the hallway, a notebook under his arm and a jacket Mari had given me in his hand. He was holding a pair of shoes in his other hand.

I looked the guys over. They were all wearing casual clothing, black pants and white shirts, their jackets over them. Except, of course, for Black Star, who didn't wear a jacket. Kidd had an expensive looking fitted jacket, black, and a soft looking scarf wrapped around his neck in a way that was symmetrical. As for Soul, he wore a leather jacket, it looked nice, and taken care of, and a white scarf that matched his hair hung over his neck.

"Here." Kid said, and got down on one knee, setting my notebook on the ground, the pencil resting inside of the pages so it wouldn't fall out. He gave me the jacket and I pulled it on, welcoming the warmth. He reached forward and took one of my feet, slipping it into one of the shoes. They were boots Mari had brought me, the blue-haired girl liking to dote on me, and they looked a lot like hers. Kid laced them up, and then did the other one, making the bows at the top perfect.

"There." He said, and stood, rubbing his hands together as he looked at the perfectly laced boots.

"Let's go now!" Mari said, and started pulling me again. I stumbled a little, but I didn't trip. I heard the three guys laugh a little, and I felt a blush creep onto my face. I tugged on Mari, and she slowed down a little, her lips moving quickly with words that I couldn't catch.

We reached a pair of bit doors, a room shaped like a training room, but was for when there was people who didn't have partners and they were gathered to try and find one. Stein had said that the students usually gathered at the times when the teachers asked and they looked for a partner.

Mari pulled one of the doors open, and pulled me inside. There were more students than I thought there would be, at least thirty people, all milling about and chatting. Some people were in weapon forms, or part way, and a few were being held by someone. I saw someone catch a sword out of the air, and drop it after yelping, holding their hand as the weapon turned back into an apologetic looking boy.

"Souls don't always resonate." Kid said next to me, looking down at me. "But also, a bond can be formed. Though, it's tricky."

I looked around at all the students, realizing that there must've been way more classes than just the Crescent Moon class. I knew that there was one other one, called NOT, I thought, but judging by all the student sin the room, either there were more people in the Crescent Moon class without partners, or there were more classes.

"Go on." Mari said, pushing me a forward a little. I looked back at her, Soul, Black Star, and Kid, feeling the frightened look on my face. If I was so sensitive to people touching me, how would I be able to—

I was cut off by a voice yelling by a small stage-type thing, similar to the one Stein had in his classroom. "Students!" a male's deep voice said, and I looked up, seeing a giant man at the end of the room, his skin a rotten blue color. I wondered at it for a second, until his voice cut off my thoughts again.

"Stein and I have asked you here because, somehow, there are many of you who still don't have partners." He said. He waved his hands a little when Stein, who had seemed to appear out of nowhere, tugged on his sleeve. "But that's fine. Some people go solo, and you may choose to do that, but I would suggest a partner, or even two perhaps." He said.

His eyes landed on my friends behind me, and he nodded. "I see that we have a few people who have partners or who are solo." He said, and everyone's eyes turned. To make it look like I wasn't completely out of place, I looked back too with the other thirty people.

Mari gave a little wave, Black Star gave a thumbs up, and Soul and Kid nodded a little. "Come up here, you four." Stein said, and Mari started walking to the front, her blue hair flowing behind her. The three guys followed.

I watched as the went up onto the little stage-thing, and they all smiled at the students. "If you didn't know them," The giant blue-skinned man said. "These are some students from the Crescent Moon class. They are good students," he said, glancing at Black Star briefly before continuing. "And good fighters." He said.

For a second, I decided to try and look at their souls. I knew that the other meisters who had this ability would probably be doing the same if they hadn't already. When I looked at their souls, I saw how powerful they looked. But Mari's... it looked weak, but most of all, it wasn't in the form that it had been the first time I met her; it was the same blue as the rest of the students in the room.

I wondered at it for a moment, and then realized that it was probably a good idea, all the students in the room mostly paranoid and unaware of her soul. "Black Star and Kid are meisters." Stein said, pointing to the two. "And Mari and Soul are both weapons." He said. I looked at Mari. She was a weapon? I wondered what her weapon form was.

"Now I'd like you all to continue to look around, try resonation, and basically mingle." Stein said, and the students looked at each other. I could tell that some of them were new students, maybe just enrolled, because they almost looked a little frightened. I at least knew I wasn't alone then.

"Hey!" an overly chipper girl, who, like everyone else, looked about my age, came over and held out her hand. I looked at it, feeling panic rush over me. Shake her hand? But— "That's okay." She said, laughing happily. "You don't have to shake my hand." She said. "My name's Jolene." She said. "I'm a weapon, and you're a meister." She said.

For a moment, I wondered how she'd known that I was a meister, and then I noticed the little pin Mari had clipped onto my jacket. It said 'meister' on it in bold text. I sighed. Mari had helped me out here.

"So, what's your name?" she asked, her blue eyes looking at me. I opened my mouth to speak, but like the past few days, no words came out.

Luckily, my four friends had come back at that exact time, and Mari introduced me to the exuberant girl, and explained that my throat was in bad condition and I couldn't speak at the moment. It was a good story to cover for the unknown reason of my silence.

I had heard Stein and Marie talking about me one night, and Stein had said that he thought that it was an after affect of all the stress and strain my body, and mind, had been through during... when I was in the darkness. I shook myself a little. It felt like there was a big empty space in my memory, like I had forgotten everything, and whenever I attempted to remember it, my mind pushed me away, giving the excuse of darkness.

"(Y/n). Jolene is going to transform into her weapon form to see if you two resonate." Mari said, smiling at me. It looked like they had been talking, and I realized that I had spaced out. I smiled at Jolene, and nodded.

Her body began to glow, shifting and changing. I reached my hands out when Mari pushed on my shoulder a little, and caught the glowing form Jolene had changed to. She was a large gun, and my arms could barely hold her. The barrel was long, and my eyes widened when I felt the weight of it cause my legs to buckle.

I fell to the ground, and she turned back to human form, giving me a smile that I could tell was fake. "Uh, that's okay." She said, and then glanced at my four friends and got up and just left.

I looked back up at Mari, a defeated look on my face. She came over and sat next to me on the floor. "That's okay, (Y/n). It might take a little while to find your partner, that's all." She said.

There were footsteps, and I looked up to see a guy standing in front of Mari and I. He looked maybe a year older than me, and was tall, his brown hair cut in a way that made him look expensive. His clothing was nice, and he was smiling just a little bit.

"Hello." He said, and his words were laced with a British accent. "James." He said, reaching his hand down to mine.

"This is (Y/n)." Soul said.

I decided I would try the whole hand-shaking thing, even if I did end up having to leave seconds later because my skin felt like it was crawling. I reached up, a little scared, and took his hand. To my amazement, instead of a feeling of panic and terror race over me at the feeling of human contact, there was a feeling of resonating, like our souls matched.

"Your souls fit together like they were made out of the same mold." Kid said, and I looked up at him, my eyes wide. I didn't understand the feeling of James' soul. He helped me up, and then I let go of his hand, but the feeling remained.

He smiled at me. "Well. This is a time when we're supposed to try resonating. Would you like me to turn to my weapon form?" he asked, a playful look in his bright green eyes. I thought about what had happened with the other girl, Jolene, not minutes before, and I didn't know if I wanted to repeat it. I looked into his eyes, and knew that he had seen.

I decided to nod, choosing that if me trying to hold him went as bad as the last time, I was going to leave and just not have a partner, if that was possible. He smiled at me, and his body glowed and shifted, changing shape much in the same way as the other girl. I reached out, Mari not pushing me this time, and I caught what felt like the hilt of something.

When the glowing died down, and I found that I didn't drop the weapon in my hands, I was amazed. I looked down at the long, thin katana in my grip, and my eyes widened. I looked over at my friends, and they were smiling.

I swung the four-foot blade through the air, the razor-sharp metal silent. It was almost like I could the sharp edge cutting the oxygen in the room, and separating it into little pieces.

James transformed back into his human form, and I looked at him. He smiled. "I get that you can't talk." He said, and I looked at the ground. He held out his hand to me again. "Good thing I can talk for the both of us, if necessary." He said. "Partners?"

A weight lifted from my chest, the worry I would never find a partner. I reached forward and took his hand again, the feeling of another person I could touch nice. No panic in my chest. No anxiety ripping over me. Everything was calm. Almost better than normal.

Ayy a nice long part bc I'm nice. I hope you all enjoyed and have a great night~

--Writer-Chan