Summary: M-21 sighed as he went up the stairs from the lab — it had only been a few minutes since he'd stopped practicing his transformation and he could already feel the muscles in his hands stiffening, resisting when he tried to flex them.
I guess set during season 3.
I made this a new fic since it seems like it'll be a series, hah.
Massage
By Dark Ice Dragon
M-21 sighed as he went up the stairs from the lab — it had only been a few minutes since he'd stopped practicing his transformation and he could already feel the muscles in his hands stiffening, resisting when he tried to flex them.
He could hear soft voices from the living room and he was greeted with Takeo and Tao's smiles when he pushed the door open with the side of his hand.
"Yooo," Tao said, waving as M-21 walked over, Takeo holding a cup out for him. "How'd the training go?"
"Fine," M-21 said as he took the offered cup from Takeo. Tao grabbed his free hand before he could do anything with it and M-21 blinked as Tao pressed his thumbs into his palm.
"What-" It was Tao — he tended to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.
"Your hands are stiff," Tao said, still focused on M-21's hand, moving his thumbs closer to M-21's fingers. Damn, he'd noticed? "Yeah, M, of course I noticed."
M-21 tried to tug his hand back but Tao's grip was firm. He glanced at Takeo and found no calculating look on his face so he relaxed a little. They weren't judging him for his weakness.
"It's nothing," he muttered. "They get like that after I practice my transformation." It wasn't something that needed attention. It would go away after a while; it always did.
"Every time?" Tao had started on his fingers, rotating them.
"No..." Sometimes it happened when he'd pushed himself too far and he ached for the next hour, and other times it happened when he'd had to cut his training short.
Tao hummed and then lifted M-21's hand to kiss it at the knuckle. "There, how's that?"
"Better," M-21 said, flexing his hand once Tao let go. He could move it without it twitching or jerking. And Tao kissing his hand like that was just Tao being Tao — there was no point trying to make sense of it other than the other man felt like doing it.
Tao nodded, then held his hand up towards the hand M-21 was holding the cup with. "Gimmie."
He moved the cup to the other hand. "It's fine, Tao," he said as he surrendered his hand, but he knew Tao would whine until he gave it over. "The cup warmed it up."
"What's the point in only massaging one hand?" Tao asked as he started. "That's not enough."
M-21 sighed. "I don't know why it's so important," he muttered. His enhanced healing would take care of it.
Tao jerked his head up at him and squawked. "Not important?" he spluttered. "Takeo!"
M-21 looked across at Takeo, whose lips were twitching. "Hands are Tao's lifeblood. They're the most important part of him-"
"Apart from my brain, of course."
"-so he needs to know how to look after them properly or else he can't do what needs to be done."
"Exactly," Tao said, nodding, focusing back on M-21's hand. "And there's no way I'd let anyone else misuse their hands if I can help it!"
Obviously.
Tao was almost done so M-21 would get his hand back soon. And after that he could start drinking the tea that had cooled since he'd first gotten it.
This would only happen once, so he didn't have to think about it again once Tao was finished.
There was supposed to be scenes where the rest of the household or at least Takeo, Tao and Frankenstein were going to start pampering M-21 and give him stuff to help him look after his hands, but the fic decided to cut short.