Summary: "What do you mean you don't know how to drive?" "I mean I don't know how to drive."

Set post-season 5.

Written for Kai! Happy birthday! Uh, I think? XD;;;;;;;

Learner

By Dark Ice Dragon

Tao's mouth dropped open, and M-21 sighed, bracing himself for whatever Tao was going to say.

"What do you mean you don't know how to drive?"

"I mean I don't know how to drive," M-21 repeated. "I didn't say it that quietly." He shouldn't have asked when Takeo and Tao had learned to pilot the helicopter - the answer was obvious once he'd thought about it, and asking brought attention to him and what he didn't know.

"But…" Confusion flickered across Tao's face. "The Union didn't even teach you that?"

M-21 curled his lip, looking away. "No point wasting time teaching a group of experimental material they were expecting to die within a week." He and M-24 had realised the problem once they'd started taking missions, but they'd learned how to use the public transport, or using the rooftops for shorter distances – it was better than spending more time than necessary at the Union.

"Would you like to learn?"

M-21 twitched; he hadn't noticed Frankenstein's approach. The small quirk of Tao's lips had said he had.

But did he want to? He hadn't felt the need to drive, most places not that far from home, but he hadn't thought knowing how to pilot a helicopter would be needed either.

"…Yeah," he said, turning to face Frankenstein, who smiled in return.

"Very well; tell me when you're ready and I'll meet you downstairs."

…Oh, fuck, what else was he hiding down there?

xOx

The navy blue car Frankenstein led him to looked normal, nothing to set it apart from the other cars in the street. The interior, as M-21 found out when he slid into it, wasn't. He knew enough to know the dashboard wasn't supposed to light up like that or have as many things he could press.

"You modified this?" he asked, starting to memorise where everything was.

Frankenstein chuckled. "I'd had a few quiet weeks and I wanted to see what I could do with it."

M-21 could see that; he wouldn't be surprised if a handful of the buttons deployed some kind of weapon.

"Now, this is the gear stick…"

M-21 let out a soft relieved breath; he'd wondered if Frankenstein would be teaching him like he'd taught them how to fight.

xOx

A week later, after M-21 had had a few more lessons, Tao slung an arm around his shoulders.

"Sooo…are you going for another drive?"

He glanced around the living room, but didn't see Frankenstein.

Tao caught his gesture. "Something came up at the school, so he's busy at the moment." M-21 realised what Tao was intending to do when the other man sucked in a breath to continue. "I could-"

"No."

Tao squawked. "No-one trusts me to teach them anything!"

"With good reason," Takeo said wryly, coming over.

"It was one time!" Tao held up a finger for extra emphasis.

"It wasn't."

Tao huffed, letting go of M-21's shoulders to cross his arms. "Okay, but you're gonna need someone who knows Boss' machines, just in case."

"Fine," M-21 said, and Tao brightened. "Takeo's in the front."

He didn't get any arguments for that.

When they were all inside the car with their seatbelts on (he'd been surprised at Frankenstein's insistence on it. He'd assumed it was about the road safety laws, but M-21 eventually realised that if they were in an accident, being 'uninjured' inside the car would be far more believable than not having any injuries after being thrown out of it), Takeo made a sound of surprise when the dashboard lit up.

"That's different…" he commented, peering at everything.

"It's Frankenstein's car," M-21 said dryly.

Tao snickered. "It'll be fine – everything else is the same, so he'll be able to drive other cars if he has to. They won't have an option for grappling hooks though."

Oh, right, he hadn't thought about if he would be able to drive other cars…

xOx

M-21 switched on the engine, going through the motions and checking everything was in place. Frankenstein had made him a manual of the car and M-21 was no longer surprised at how long it took him to go through one of Frankenstein's books – he wrote in excruciating detail while still keeping things clear and understandable.

Click.

M-21 turned to the passenger side, expecting to see Tao making himself at home. "I said-"

"Welcome, Master!"

Uh. That wasn't Tao. And he shouldn't have been surprised Frankenstein had installed software to greet him when he entered the car.

He was studying the car with curiosity, but he was also keeping his hands to himself (had he been in a car before?).

"I'm not going for a drive," M-21 told him carefully. Frankenstein was busy, and Takeo and Tao had gone out; he'd only gone downstairs to make sure he was remembering everything correctly.

"I know."

Oh. All right. So long as he knew.

M-21 let out a breath and started going through the instructions of how to make the car move.

xOx

Frankenstein held a card out for M-21, smiling. "Congratulations."

M-21 took it and flipped it over, seeing it was a driving licence, his picture and civilian name on it. "Thanks."

Laughing, Tao cheered, looping an arm around his shoulders. "Great! We can go celebrate now!" Tao started pulling him towards the living room and M-21 could smell something wafting from that direction. When Tao had steered him away from it earlier, he'd assumed Tao was planning another joke. "Next up, motorbike!" Wait- "Then the helicopter!"

What.

"Tao-!"

M-21 was going to drive with Rai, but Rai's not an experienced driver and M-21 thought Frankenstein would kill him for driving while he's still learning.

Rai had to have been in a car in the third season, unless they ran to the plane. XD;

Frankenstein teaches because he wants to make sure M-21's to the veeery best standard, haha.