I joined an art therapy place and have mostly been dusting off the old ceramics skills (and learning some new ones – I hadn't poured molds before) making things for friends, but they also have a writing group early Thursday mornings where they give you a prompt and 40 minutes to write, so I figure I'll be doing Noblesse ficlets.

Theme: Freedom

M-21 had never had a schedule before. The schedules in the Union were experimentation schedules. Maybe the scientists had something to do to him at nine, maybe they'd take him out of the tank at one to throw some other poor bastard in, but they weren't going to tell him any of that or let him prepare himself. What else did he have to do? They didn't give experiments access to a clock, either.

Now he had the clock on his cell phone – wanting that back was part of why he'd dared bother Frankenstein for one. Knowing what time it was in the world outside, knowing when he'd be fed or woken… He and M-24 got to feed themselves what they wanted, when they wanted, when they were on missions outside, but he'd be living in someone else's compound here. House

Home.

Now he had to be down by a certain time to have time for breakfast before work. Tao had drawn up a patrol schedule for best coverage of the school grounds. Those weren't someone else's plans to get what they wanted, thought – they were his plans to get food, or to protect the kids. Important things, things that mattered or he just wanted.

After school, playing games until it was time to do the dishes. Free time then unless there were any experiments, ones he'd wanted, even asked for, so he wouldn't be helpless or a burden. Dinner with everyone. Patrol schedules, protecting the kids, not letting trouble get near the school or their home.

Looking forward to training with Frankenstein on the weekend, because it'd be painful but he wanted that, was willing to do it, because he wanted to get stronger. To protect everyone. So none of them got dragged back into a lab, forced to live without time, with no idea when it would be over or what was coming next.

Freedom didn't seem to come with a lot of free time, except it did. He was the one who decided to not just sit around waiting for whatever they wanted to do to him, but that he was going to let Tao drag him upstairs to play the videogame with Regis and Takeo until it was time for first patrol, where he'd be meeting up with Kentas, who felt bad for forcing M-21to stay on patrol until he was captured when M-21 had stuff to do.

M-21 didn't know how Kentas had the free time to come all the way over here so often when didn't he have the werewolves to protect, but whatever. Kentas and M-21 were both out of that lab. It was up to Kentas what he did with his time.