Summary: Something wakes Takio up in the middle of the night. When he leaves his room to check it out, what he finds isn't what he expected.

Rated for swearing.

Set between 154 and 158.

Argh. *whine whine complain complain stuff* Basically, I'm not happy with this, but I've been known to not like much about a fic/chapter and it's not as bad as I made it out to be.

It was like pulling teeth writing this one. D:

The site is striping the asterisks again... Gah.

Night Disturbance

By Dark Ice Dragon

Takio's room was silent; he could only hear the light tapping of the rain on his window. The room was still dark, and there didn't seem to be anything else in there with him.

So what had woken him up?

He waited, his eyes still closed, just in case – there. Someone was outside his door.

He slipped off his bed, sliding his pistol out from under his pillow at the same time, and padded towards his door, the faint light from the bottom guiding his way. Takio was surprised the intruder hadn't tried to enter yet, but maybe they were distracted by something. Or too cocky. They had to be – they'd broken into Frankenstein'shouse (which had to be a feat in itself, but Takio would dwell on that later after the threat had been taken care of).

The person moved away (and there was something strange about the footsteps, the placement) and Takio slowly turned the handle. He heard and felt it catch, the 'click'sounding far too loud. Swearing, Takio threw the door open and aimed his pistol towards the–

What?

Takio hastily pointed the muzzle elsewhere and removed his finger from the trigger. A second later, the door across from his flew open, Tao ready with his whip. Who let it fall as soon as he saw who he had been about to attack.

It took a couple of tries before Takio could get his throat to work properly. "M-21…?" It was and it wasn't. The man was crouched on all fours, his face in profile to Takio, not seeming like the position of his limbs bothered him, if his easy breathing and lack of adjusting to something more comfortable was anything to go by. M-21's straight hair was now wild, sticking out in gravity-defying spikes. Takio could see the silver-furred arms, the claw-tipped fingers that Tao had told him about when M-21 had fought Shark – but the transformation didn't stop there. The fur continued upward, past his shirt collar, covering M-21's neck and ended as two points on M-21's cheeks.

As soon as he heard his name, M-21 tipped his head towards Takio. Two fangs jutted down from underneath M-21's lips and his eyes were lighter, almost matching his hair. Slitted.

There was no recognition in his eyes.

Takio couldn't look away. He wasn't sure what would happen if he did (would M-21 transform more? Run away? Attack them?) and he didn't want to find out, in case the situation ended up worse.

What had happened? M-21's transformation didn't come from drugs but from a force of will – had he been practicing and then…?

M-21 was no longer gazing at him with a faint curious expression; his eyes had begun to narrow, and his lips had lifted to bare his teeth. A low growl rumbled from M-21's throat. Shit. Was he-

"Takio."

He jerked at his name, breaking eye contact. He saw Frankenstein on the other side of the hall, behind M-21, walking towards them.

"It's rude to stare," Frankenstein continued lightly, smiling. "Some people might think you want to fight them if you do that for too long."

Uh… Wha-? And then he got it. Takio flicked his eyes back to M-21, not moving his head. M-21 was no longer glaring, and most of his teeth were covered again. He seemed more interested in studying his surroundings than anything else. Okay, try to keep the staring down.

Wait, if Frankenstein was here and didn't seem surprised at the situation – and he'd examined M-21, so maybe… he knew this was going to happen?

The question hung in the air, but Takio wasn't going to ask. That would be prying into what had been done to M-21 – the other man talked more about his comrades than he did of himself and Takio very much doubted M-21 wanted anyone to see him like this.

Takio cleared his throat and very carefully did not look at M-21 when he focused on him again. "Sir? Is he…" going to return to his usual self? going to be the same after this? like this regularly?

"He'll be back to normal in a few hours, don't worry," Frankenstein reassured him, smile softening into something more natural.

Takio breathed a sigh of relief. Good.

Frankenstein hummed and raised a hand to his chin. "Could you two look after him in the meantime? If he were to get outside –seeing as he already left his room- and the general public were to see and record him…"

Fuck. That was definitely something they didn't want to happen.

He didn't need to think about his answer. "I'm not sleepy anyway."

"I was only surfing the internet," Tao said with a shrug at the same time.

Frankenstein smiled at them. "Thank you. I'll see you in the morning then." He turned away and walked back from where he came from, his footsteps silent.

After he'd gone, Takio shared a look with Tao. They're agreed to look after M-21, but what exactly were they supposed to do?

Tao made a thoughtful noise and scratched the back of his head. He then took a step towards M-21, who lifted his head at him.

"Wanna come with us?" Tao asked smoothly, his hands unhidden and spread wide.

M-21 blinked and then cocked his head to the side. Something in Takio clenched seeing that, the unfamiliar movements, the sheer difference between this M-21 and the M-21 he knew.

With a shake of the head, M-21 pushed himself up so that he stood on only his feet and then came towards them. …He still understood them?

"Your room or mine?" Tao murmured.

It didn't matter; they were the same size and the only difference between them was that Tao's room had more electrical equipment while his housed more guns. Takio jerked his head at his own door before going in; there was less chance of accidents in his room, what with his guns being safely packed away.

He had stowed the pistol in his bedside table by the time Tao came in, M-21 a couple of steps behind him. After taking a few wary sniffs, M-21 headed straight for Takio's bed, climbed on and curled up against the covers.

Uh…

When M-21 raised his head to peer at him, Takio quickly averted his gaze. He saw M-21 twist around to look at Tao from the corner of his eyes. No-one moved. After a few seconds, M-21 settled his head back on the bed and whined, the sound despondent.

Startled, Takio stared at him. What did that mean? They weren't supposed to make eye contact but M-21 was obviously trying to say something.

Takio stood there deliberating for a minute, before he brushed his hair away from his back with a sweep of his hand and eased himself down next to M-21. Almost before Takio had sat down fully, M-21 had wormed his way closer, pressing the top of his head against his thigh, a pleased sounding grumble coming from his throat.

Takio blinked down at him, not sure where to put his hands. Normally they'd be by his side, but if he did that now he'd end up touching M-21. He opted for leaning back and putting some of his weight on his hands. M-21 didn't seem to mind.

There was a rustle as Tao set himself by M-21's feet. M-21's response to that was to stretch slightly, his feet going over Tao's legs, before returning to his previous position, the slight tension in his body Takio hadn't realised was there gone.

Huh. Was that what M-21 had been trying to say?

It was silent after that, the rain beating against the window the only sound in the room again. It was…comfortable, at least.

Eventually, M-21's breathing evened out and deepened.

xOx

A number of hours later, Takio watched as light started to filter through his blinds, the rain having faded to a drizzle at some point. He and Tao hadn't talked much, just in case they woke M-21. His sleep seemed to have been peaceful; he hadn't moved a lot anyway.

M-21 heaved a stuttering breath, his whole body shuddering. As Takio watched, the fur covering M-21's body receded, leaving unmarked human skin behind, while M-21's hair smoothened out and splayed itself across Takio's leg. M-21's hands twitched as the claws flattened and returned to their normal colour, before it looked like they were sucked into his fingertips.

Now they just had to check when he woke up-

"Fuck," he said quietly.

Tao peered at him. "Hm?"

Takio gestured at M-21. "What's going to happen when he wakes up?" M-21 wasn't in his own room, and he wasn't going to wake up alone either. Takio frowned, thinking. Frankenstein hadn't been clear on whether M-21 would remember anything or not.

And M-21 had already woken up, his breathing going shallow for a few seconds before leveling out again, his body tense.

Shit. "M-21," he said, not entirely sure what to say, "it's us."

"Yeah."

The pretence of slumber was dropped with a deep exhale. Very deliberately, M-21 sat up slowly, looking at neither of them, his hair hiding most of his face.

"You okay?" Tao asked, moving away to give M-21 a bit more space.

"…Yeah," was the subdued reply. M-21 swallowed and took a few breaths, his jaw clenched. "What happened?"

Well, that answered one question. "You woke us up," Takio said carefully, "and...you weren't yourself."

"I wasn't myself," M-21 repeated, voice flat. His hands curled into fists. "How wasn't I myself?"

"You were transformed-" M-21's whole body went rigid "-and you didn't seem to recognise us," Tao explained.

Except, he must have on some level, if he had found comfort in their presence.

M-21's head bowed, his breathing going unsteady. "Did I attack you?" he asked quietly.

Takio shook his head. "No," he said a second later, belatedly realising M-21 probably couldn't see him.

There was a sigh of relief. "Good."

It was quiet after that; Takio could see that M-21 was waiting for something, and he could guess what that was. No-one said anything, the silence easy, and bit by bit, M-21 relaxed.

"Thanks," M-21 said as he got off the bed, still not turning around.

Tao shrugged as he adjusted the collar of his top. "What for?" he asked mildly.

At that response, a small smile curved on M-21's lips. "I'd...better get ready for work."

Takio snorted. "Same with us." It was earlier than when he usually woke up, but not by much. There wouldn't be much point in trying to fall back to sleep.

M-21 left without another word, his stride distracted. Tao stood up next, stretching with his hands high above his head. "I'll see you at breakfast," he said with a wave of his hand.

Takio grunted in reply and waited until Tao closed the door before moving. It could have gone a lot worse, he mused as he reached for his brush on the bedside table, but they would be a little more prepared for it the next time it happened, if it happened again.

A yawn caught him by surprise, and that seemed to be a signal for his body to tell him just how tired it was. Now that he didn't have to worry about M-21, everything he'd been ignoring over the last couple of hours made themselves known. Like how he couldn't feel his ass anymore, his muscles were stiff from the lack of movement, and how he really needed to pee. And when he stood up, he could feel the mix of a headache and lightheadedness joining together in a united front against his skull. Sighing, he started to make his way to the bathroom, still intent on going to work.

He'd completed missions on less sleep and if he gave in to it, M-21 would blame himself, even though Takio knew he'd do the exact same thing if the situation had been reversed.

Putting all thoughts of what had happened to the side, Takio began the task of getting ready for another day at work.

In case you were wondering, it was a full moon that night. ;)