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Patchwork lab. Autumn. After the second surgerectomy.
Crona stretched. Touched their toes, tilted their torso side to side. Reached for the ceiling and kept going, all the way to the floor. They tried to push back up like they always did used to do, but couldn’t. They laid on their back instead, and tested their new spine from there.
Stein’s work was amazing, like always. He can and did do things they never dreamed of - nightmares nonwithstanding - and leave them feeling almost fresh. Hollowed out, but more like decluttering than gouging. They lifted their legs into the air, pointed them upward, then bought them back down until their knees were on either side of their head. They never thought they’d come out of the surgerectomy feeling so good! They were almost as flexible as when they had Ragnarok inside them, but now without the clicking they were coming to realize was probably bad.
Their door opened, and Crona turned their head to look up at Stein. The man who’s house they live in peered down at them- at least, they thought he was looking at them. His head was angled that way, but his glasses’ lens flare obscured eye contact.
He sighed and muttered, “teenagers…” Then, in a normal speaking voice, said, “I didn’t make you that flexible.”
They unrolled themself to lay flat on their back again. “What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
That only made them want to worry more, but as they opened their mouth to doubly request clarification, Stein pulled out something from behind his back. Crona jerked into a seated position as their body flooded with chilled terror, seeing snake, but no, that wasn’t right. As they looked more closely, it was obviously not one, despite having roughly the same dimensions.
“It’s a gift. For you,” Stein said, holding out a human spine, bleached white and held together with subtle, metal pins. “I thought you might like to keep it, as a reminder of how far you’ve come and all you’ve done for yourself this last year.”
Crona bounced to their feet to take the spine from their doctor, but darkness suddenly grabbed at their vision. Before they could stumble, Stein was there, holding them up with a firm yet gentle hand on their shoulder.
“Crona, you need to take it slow. You’re still not at one hundred percent.”
“R-right. Sorry. Um. Thank you.”
They eased out from his grip to stand alone when their vision was once again clear. They took the piece of themself from Stein. It was lighter than they expected, this thing they left behind. Harder too, and as they felt along each vertebrae they realize something. “Some of these aren’t bone?”
Stein frowned. “Unfortunately, some of the vertebrae were more than just unaligned, and were broken or outright shattered. As you know, I removed all of the bones, but I was unable to reconstruct all of them completely. I kept what pieces were big enough to glue together, but some of the shards were too small.”
They looked back down at the ladder of bone in their hands. They knew it was odd, and gross, and probably incredibly creepy, but it also was kind of wonderful and amazing. Though… something was missing. More than slivers of bone. More than the flesh that should surround it. But what?
“...I could incinerate it, if you’d prefer.”
Crona flinched at Stein’s sudden suggestion. “Incinerate it?” They held the bones closer to their bosom. “No! I don’t want that at all.”
“Then… you like it?” They nodded. He smiled with relief. “Good. I was worried you didn’t want it.”
“I love it,” they stated plainly. “It’s the-” they did some quick mental math “-fourth best gift I’ve ever gotten.”
“I’m glad to hear that. But then why were you frowning at it?”
They looked back down at the object in question. “Something’s missing from it, but I don’t know what.”
“Not pieces of bone, I presume.”
They shook their head.
“...Could it be you expected it to be black? I’m sorry to say, but your bones do remain their natural color.”
“That’s it! Color, it needs color! Do we have any paints? Or dyes? Anything like that?” They rummage through their desk, quickly and haphazardly. “Why do I only have writing stuff…”
Stein blinked at their sudden excitement. “I believe I could make some basic pigments in my lab, if you’d like.”
Crona grinned at his offer. Getting a smile from this child was a rare thing, and something Stein would remove a hundred more spines to see again. He wished Marie were here to see it too, but she was out getting groceries. Maybe he could keep them smiling long enough for her to see? He decided to try that.
An hour later, the pigments were mixed and the not-father-not-son duo were engrossed in painting each vertebrae a different color of the rainbow. Stein had to take the spine apart to allow easy access to the grooves, and to stop them from painting onto the next piece, but as the paint dries, he let himself smile and subtly enjoy his not-daughter’s smile.
He had to admit, he’s enjoyed this activity with Crona. It wasn’t often he got to allow himself to make art - mostly because his art usually involved far more crimes against nature and divine law - but this had been fun. He wondered if Crona has anything else they can remove and decorate.
…he put that thought in a box and pushed it into the closet.
Instead, he wondered if Crona would be open to doing something like this again some time. Before he could ask, the sound of the front door opening and closing sounded through the home. Marie was back.
“Awwww,” she cooed as she rounded the corner, dropping her armloads of groceries to touch her face. She rushed over to the kitchen table, looking intently at the pieces of bone set out to dry. “Did you two paint these together?”
Crona nodded, their smile still alive, though small and shy now, under the brilliant light of Marie’s earnestness. “It’s um. It’s my spine, the one professor Stein took out. He kept it and gave it to me, and now we’re… yeah.”
She pulled the two of them into a tight, warm hug. “You two are bonding! That’s so- so- so ahhhhhh,” she squealed, apparently unable to find the word she wanted. Then she gasped, and though Stein did not know what was coming, he knew to fear it. “You two stay right here, I’ll go get more.”
And then she was gone.
She came back three days later, covered in dried blood, with a lumpy, red-brown sack over her shoulder, and the biggest smile on her face. Stein and Crona tried to match it, but deep inside both felt as Pandora must have once felt, staring at the demon they had unleashed together.