Contagious

Title: Contagious
Author: WallfofIllusion
Fandom: Soul Eater (manga base...)
Characters/Couples: MedusaxStein (again)
Misc. Notes: Again, the only thing that says this is based in the WiMtLC storyline is the fact that I wouldn't be able to write it without giving a reason that they're living together. No further context is required or will be provided, and you are an excellent test subject. Rated PG for swearing and slight violence.

She's in the mood to let him watch today.
So as she moves about her lab, boiling this, measuring that, he sits backwards in one of her chairs and watches. His eyes are wide and move loosely in their sockets as if they're not quite secured. They don't follow her exactly. And sometimes they drift to the floor, or to the ceiling, and she hears him muttering something.
"Hallucinating again?" she asks, to interrupt.
He gives a start and a shaky grin. Thanks her in the least sincere way possible. Settles his chin into his arms.
She sniffs and looks back at her work. The black blood is almost complete—almost, always almost. She is not unaware that she keeps moving the bar back and driving herself forward, but she cannot rest yet. Can't just abandon a project that she's worked on for centuries.
Slowly she becomes aware of a roar like the ocean in the back of her head. She hisses quietly in irritation. Stein hears.
"Something wrong?" he asks in mocking concern.
"Nothing."
But the roar is growing, swelling, and there's something black or maybe a deep red creeping at the edges of her vision. She puts down the beaker she's holding to rub her temples, to fight this off, but as she does the roar washes over her and her eyes roll back into her head. Inside her skull she sees a writhing mass of red and shadow, the distinctive three-eye pattern of the Kishin visible scattered among it, and she knows this is a hallucination but she can't shake it and the roaring has become screaming. Beyond the screaming she can hear her only her own heartbeat. It is rushing along too fast, too loud, because she is terrified as she feels something sludgy drip down the back of her neck, through her clothes, down her body. The floor, too, is made of the same sludge and feels suddenly unstable. Surely she will be sucked down and away—
And then she feels a sharp fire on her shoulder and an arm around her back. Her vision clears. The only thing dripping down her skin is the sheen of sweat on her forehead and neck, and the blood on her shoulder where Stein slashed her with his scalpel like pinching a sleepwalker. Her heart is still racing. Stein is holding her to his chest. As her breathing returns to normal, she lets herself touch his shirt and rest her forehead against him. She moves her hand tenderly along his chest with a quiet, self-mocking laugh.
"I shouldn't let you stay here," she whispers. "You're contagious."
His laugh sounds so much like hers. He tosses the scalpel aside and strokes her hair with his now-free hand. "Stupid witch," he says, hate-filled and affectionate. "It's your own damn fault."