Chapter: 1/1
Character: M-21, Tao, Takeo
Summary: Tao tries to convince M-21 and Takeo to offer their strength in an altruistic way.

[Disclaimer: Noblesse and its characters do not belong to me.]

(also posted on my tumblr)

Tao scurried to the door as he exhaled the vapor from his breath. With arms outstretched, he barricaded the door.

"Tao, can't we hug inside?" Takeo joked, halting his step. It puzzled him to see Tao dart to the door and look like that.

"Ah, not yet. Our work isn't done yet," he informed them, wagging his gloved index finger while flashing a grin. M-21 quirked an eyebrow and scanned the area. They shoveled inside, outside, and around the fence, scraped the cement of the powdery snow, pushed the snow piles to the side, and then cleared out the balcony. And salted the entire property.

"Oh? If there's another definition for 'done,' I'd like to hear it," M-21 challenged. Tao grabbed his shovel and raised it in the air.

M-21 deeply inhaled and pinched his nose. Oh no, what now?

"We, the RK-3," Tao declared—there was no way out of it now—"are going to offer our services to the neighborhood."

The two blinked. "Go on," M-21 pressed. Never one to wait.

With a thumb under his chin and finger pressed to his chin, Takeo concluded, "You want us to shovel their property."

Tao looked over at M-21's expression and knew that he wasn't even closed to being convinced. He clutched his hands on their shoulders to draw their eyes to them. Tao's expression softened.

"Look." His voice had a tinge of somberness to it. "These hands. Our hands—aren't they amazing? They've been through a lot, don't you think? They've been stepped on, stabbed, twisted, broken." He could go on, but M-21 had an inkling with where this was going.

Though he was usually behind the scenes, he understood that his planning and hacking unlocked doors to the other side's destruction. And when he had to, he commanded his arms to tighten, snap, and whip his wires around the enemy's neck.

The group became silent as they all looked at their own hands.

For the longest time, all M-21 has ever known how to do with them was clench into a fist and punch. Scratch. Destroy. Kill.

Takeo stared at the back of his hand and flexed his fingers. He curled his index fingers, the ones that usually pulled the trigger numerous amount of times. Sharp. Reflexive. Piercing.

M-21's lips lifted upward. "Yeah, they have." He picked up his shovel again and walked towards the gate with Takeo trailing along.

"Hey, the one with the idea isn't allowed to back out of it." Takeo waved to Tao to snap him out of his daze.

Tao raced towards them with a face wreathed in smiles. Encircling his arms around his friends, he raised his head towards the sky. "Of course not! I wonder if they'll be nice enough to give us money."

Takeo sighed, "So it was for money."

"Let's go!" His infectious enthusiasm drew a smile on their faces.

Day by day, their hands would learn new things. Their hands knew well how to destroy—that was never going to disappear. But now they they can also mend. Create. Push onward with their new-found strength.

They just needed to see the tools in a different light.