“I can’t believe you just stabbed me!” Steven shouted with indignation, which was odd since the intended audience was the Beast who had just recently been very intent on stabbing him. The Beast for its part, had the decency to at least look ashamed. It mimed a few quick stabs away from Steven, and then looked down at its hand, as if surprised to see there was a sharp, and now a bit blood, bit of metal in it.

“I understand, old habits are hard to break and all,” Steven admonished as he tried to stem the flow of blood running down his side, somewhere between his kidney and what he was reluctant to admit was a love handle, “but I thought we were better than this!”

The Beast nodded but refused to make eye contact.

“It will take some time, but we’ll work though- hey cut that out.” The Beast even more surprised it was about to stab Steven in the thigh than Steven was.

“Maybe you should put that down?” Over the course of their strange relationship, Steven had a strong impression that the Beast understood what he was saying, but even if it understood the words, the very concept of putting down his little lump of metal was foreign.

“Here, I will talk you through it. Place the, well I guess let’s call it a weapon, on the ground. No don’t lay on the ground with the it. Get up. See, that was good, but you look at your hand, yeah, the weapon is still there, isn’t it? No, don’t try and stab it into me. Yes I know if you stabbed the weapon in to me, it wouldn’t still be in your hand, but that’s not the best way to go about this. Why can’t you just… I’m sorry, it’s not that I want to be upset with you, this whole bleeding from a stab wound just has me on edge.”

Slowly, gloriously, the Best leaned down and place the weapon gently on the ground. Against every instinct in its body, it then leaned back up, the lump of metal still on the ground.

“You… did it!” They both cheered, “I never lost faith in you, I always knew deep down you would-“ there was a dull impact followed by a sharp pain in Steven side, “-stab me again. You stabbed me again.”

The Beast looked stared with wide eyes at the newly blooded lump in his hand, and then at the other one on the ground.

“This is going to be harder than I thought.”