Summary: It started with Tao stealing M-21's phone.
Inspired by talking with Myriade and an anon who asked what would happen if M-21 had left his phone behind in Signal Version 2. Myriade's writing the long version of Signal, but I'm filling in the gaps about the phone, heh.
This is mostly a standalone though, heh.
Making Memories
By Dark Ice Dragon
M-21 frowned at his phone. There were more icons on it than he remembered.
"What did you do?" M-21 asked, not looking up when he could hear Tao tapping on his pocket computer on the couch next to him. If Tao had done anything else to his phone while he wasn't looking…
"Added a couple games." And Tao wasn't even pretending to be innocent this time. "So ya don't get bored."
"Who says I'll use them?" M-21 said with a snort.
"Because I picked a good selection — there's gonna be at least one you like out of 'em."
All the games did different at a glance. "That's if I tried them." M-21 didn't try to keep his smirk off his face and Tao prodded him with a cable.
"Okay," Tao said with a drawn out sigh, tilting his face towards the ceiling. "But don't blame me when you're dying of boredom in the future and have nothing to do."
M-21 flicked Tao's cable; the cable wound around his fingers in retaliation. He hadn't said anything about deleting the games. "With you around, we're never going to be bored."
Tao laughed at that, the sound making M-21's smirk melt into a smile. "You've got a good point there, M!
"But come on-" Tao scooted closer, leaning one elbow on M-21's shoulder, plucking M-21's phone out his hand. "-lemme show ya how to play these. Then you decide can how you feel about them."
It wasn't as if he had much of a choice when Tao had his phone, but M-21 watched anyway.
xOx
"Tao-!"
M-21 looked over from the TV when Tao skidded into the living room and dived across M-21's lap with a laugh.
"It'll help ya learn faster that way!" Tao's voice was muffled by the cushion.
So that was it. M-21 lifted his palm up towards Takeo, who'd stormed in after Tao.
"Thanks," Takeo said, placing his phone into M-21's hand.
"Heeey! That's cheating!" M-21 had already ducked his head to focus on changing the language back (it seemed like Tagalog at a glance), but he could imagine Tao was sticking his tongue out at him.
"It's a collaboration," M-21 said, finding the settings. "You said we should develop our teamwork more."
"Hmm. But what if you're not around?"
"I would ask you," Takeo said, and M-21 smirked.
It took a bit of guesswork, but M-21 found where to change the language.
"There." He handed the phone back once he was done and Takeo took it with a grateful nod.
Tao had straightened while M-21 was busy, leaning back on the couch, and Takeo sat down next to M-21.
"I should have memorised where it is by now." Takeo sighed as he slipped his phone into his pocket.
"He'd probably hack it so the menus were different," M-21 said with a snort, eyeing Tao.
Tao grinned again, waving a hand. "Yup. And that would definitely mean you'd learned the words."
"Or that I'd recognised the word 'language'," Takeo said with a shake of his head.
"And that's one less word you have to learn!"
Takeo groaned.
xOx
M-21 couldn't find his phone. It had been in his jacket the last he'd checked and he'd left that in his room. But when he'd gone to get it, it wasn't there.
There was only one person in the house who would take his phone.
"Tao..." he muttered to himself, stalking out his room. But why would Tao do it? M-21 snorted — there were some things he wouldn't understand about Tao's brain, even if Tao explained his thought processes step by step, so sometimes there wasn't any point asking him.
Tao wasn't at the balcony and he wasn't in his room either, his computers on standby, so M-21 went down stairs.
He found Tao as he was leaving the living room, the scent of dinner wafting up after him.
"Tao," M-21 said with a sigh, seeing the phone in his hand, "give it over."
"You say it like I was trying to steal it," Tao said as he lobbed M-21's phone in an easy arc.
"You took it without asking first," M-21 said, catching it and unlocking it. It was still in Korean, not that that was something Tao would do to his phone.
M-21 narrowed his eyes, trying to find what Tao had changed. Tao hadn't added new apps, which meant it had to be something else.
He checked the settings out of habit and - there it was. Photos was taking up some of his phone's memory now.
"Heh," Tao said at his side as M-21 opened the photos to see what Tao had done. "I thought you might have gone through everything one by one."
M-21 would have snorted or retorted something, but he blinked instead at what he saw.
It was Seira preparing dinner. The children had crowded M-21 enough to show their own photos at him that he knew what to do to see more.
There were more pictures of Seira, looking as if they were taken around about the same time, at different angles.
She was looking at the camera in a few of them, but there were a couple others were she was busy preparing food.
M-21 doubted that was the only pictures Tao had taken and he backed out of the gallery. His eyebrows shot up at the number displayed there.
"You took two hundred photos?" M-21 said, staring at Tao. How long had Tao had his phone for?
Who grinned and nodded. "Yup! I was hoping to take more, buuut you found me first, heh."
"Why..." M-21 muttered, glancing through the rest of the gallery. It seemed like Tao had taken pictures of everyone else in the house, both by themselves and in pairs or more since Tao had also taken pictures with him alongside the others. Tao had even photographed the puppy, playing tug of war in one photo with his cables.
"Because," Tao drew out, wrapping an arm around M-21's shoulders, "you wouldn't have taken these if I hadn't!"
That was true. M-21 knew he could take photos with his phone, but he'd never bothered to. He hadn't felt the need.
"I see your faces every day," M-21 said with a shake of the head. He wasn't going to forget their faces any time soon. ...Though...
"It's not just about our faces, M!" Tao said, plucking M-21's phone from his hand. He flicked towards the camera and then held it up in front of their faces. "It's about moments, the stuff that isn't as easy to remember."
The camera didn't flash, but it did click.
When Tao showed the photo, Tao was smiling in it, while M-21 was frowning, his eyes not focused.
"Hm," Tao said, still holding M-21's phone. "Wanna take another?"
"Yeah," M-21 said, his voice a little faint. He shook his head, concentrating again. Tao had a point: if something were to happen to the others, he didn't have anything to remember them by, and he knew how shitty his memory could be.
"Great!"
The next time the camera clicked, M-21 was able to make a small smile for it.
xOx
There was a new folder in M-21′s gallery. He'd left his phone in his room as he practiced his transformation in the lab, and that was all the time Tao had needed to add it.
The folder was called 'Motivation'. There was probably pictures of compliments inside, but M-21 checked anyway. Tao might have titled it something innocuous so a stranger wouldn't go snooping in it straight away.
He was right.
Insider the folder were pictures of M-21. They weren't candid shots of him from the phone, but from the security cameras Tao must have found around the city.
They were M-21's transformation.
M-21 didn't know how long Tao must have looked for them, but they were on his phone anyway, dated and in order of his changes. From even before Tao and Takeo had arrived.
'Motivation', huh...
M-21 sat back in his chair and lifted his hand, transforming it one more time.
He'd used to find it so hard to maintain his transformation before he'd been taken in by Frankenstein and his Master. He still did, which was why he'd pushed himself harder tonight, but...the pictures were right: he'd made a lot of progress since he'd first arrived in South Korea. He could hold his transformation for longer, when his current form was stronger and used more energy to hold.
Exhaling, M-21 let go of his transformation and opened up his messages. [Thanks,] he sent to Tao.
[no prob~! ^0^]
That done, M-21 dragged himself to his bed, curled up, and fell asleep.
xOx
M-21's phone was missing again.
This time at three in the morning.
Grumbling, M-21 slipped out of bed and went looking for Tao. His phone had been on his bedside table when he'd gone to sleep, so Tao must have snuck in while he slept. Or Tao had used his cables to take it; it would explain how M-21 hadn't woken up.
Why had Tao needed it now?
Tao wasn't on their floor, all the lights off inside the bedrooms, so M-21 went downstairs. The living room lights were off as well, but when M-21 turned around at the base of the stairs, he narrowed his eyes at the sight of Tao crouched by Frankenstein's bedroom door, M-21's phone held up in the crack.
"What are you doing?" M-21 hissed, stalking over.
Tao whipped his head towards him, pressing a finger up to his own lips. Tao glanced at M-21's phone, then his eyes went wide.
M-21 didn't have time to dodge as Tao's cables shot out and wrapped around him, sweeping him off his feet and carried him along as Tao dashed up the stairs.
Tao threw himself into his room, closing the door as quickly as he could.
"Tao, what the fuck?" M-21 struggled against the cables, huffing. Tao's cables weren't tight around him and M-21 wasn't trying too hard to escape, but he'd still prefer if his feet were on the ground.
"I wanted proof Boss actually slept!"
That was it? "And?" Though with that reaction, it was obvious what the answer was.
"Uh." Tao chuckled, rubbing the back of his head and he put M-21 down. M-21 flexed his hands and rubbed an arm, getting rid of the feeling where the cables had pressed against him. "He was still awake? And whoops, the video's still on." Tao fiddled with the phone a bit more before lobbing it at M-21.
He caught it and tucked it away in a pocket. He's look at it later. "You'll probably have to make up for waking him up."
Tao rocked back and forth on his heels. "Maaaybe. Well, we'll find out later!" Tao patted his shoulder.
"We-? I didn't wake him up!"
"You were there though!"
M-21 ran his hand down his face, groaning. They would find out in the morning.
xOx
M-21 couldn't sleep. Even after he'd practiced his transformation until he'd almost collapsed, his mind refused to stop thinking.
It had been hours since he'd went to bed — his book didn't interest him, and wandering the house and waking everyone else up didn't appeal to him either.
Which didn't leave him with much. Apart from...
M-21 glanced at his phone and picked it up. He'd never looked at all the photos Tao had taken. He had nothing else to do, so he opened up his gallery and started looking through it.
There were more than two-hundred pictures now, and glancing at the dates of some, Tao had stolen his phone more times than he'd realised.
Most of them were group photos, Tao trying to get as many people in as possible, whether they were aware of it or not (Raizel-nim and Frankenstein were always glancing at the camera).
So. Tao had mentioned taking photos was for the moments that he would forget. And at least these were moments he hadn't seen.
But... It was nice seeing the others like that. Relaxed and smiling, not worried. He should...take more pictures. Pictures that he would remember the context of, remember taking.
The pictures seemed to have helped, and M-21 set the phone on his bedside before he dropped it as he drifted off to sleep.
xOx
M-21 wasn't sure what to take pictures of. He knew it was of people, but all the same...
He sighed in the living room and took a picture of it. He studied it afterwards, just making sure it had turned out all right. It had, everything in focus.
"Heeeya, M, what're you doing?"
M-21 lifted his hand and took a picture of Tao. In the picture, Tao's eyes were wide, his eyebrows lifted. M-21 smirked at that.
"Oh, so that's what you're doing!" Tao turned his head around to call out, "Hey, Takeo!"
"Mm?" Takeo stepped out, adjusting his tie. "What is - ack!"
Tao ignored the cry, keeping his arm around Takeo's shoulder, grinning at M-21. "C'mon, take a picture!"
Snorting, M-21 did that.
"Lemme see!" Tao said, dragging Takeo over, his arm still around his shoulders.
"Tao-!"
Tao peered at the picture then shook his head. "Nope, gotta take it again."
M-21 blinked then looked at the picture. The edges were a little blurry, Takeo moving when M-21 had taken it. He snorted. "Fine." But when he moved to delete the picture, Tao waved his free hand.
"Hey, don't do that! That's another memory!"
Takeo had given up on trying to free himself from Tao's grip and just stooped there at an angle.
"It's my phone," M-21 said, leaving it alone anyway.
"Yeah, but it's also a memory of how you had to take another picture."
"And how I had to stand like this for five minutes," Takeo said.
"Exactly!" Tao beamed, raising his hand to wave his fingers in the air, posing. "This time, it should be perfect."
The picture was, no blurriness in it.
"Great," Tao said after looking at it, and then yanked the phone out of M-21's hand.
"Hey-!"
This time Tao grabbed him by the shoulders, throwing his phone up to catch it with his cables.
"Say kimchi~!"
M-21 had enough time to look at his phone and say it before he heard the click. It clicked a few more times and then Tao let go of them.
"All riiight, let's see how they turned out!" Tao handed the phone back to M-21 and he looked at the new pictures.
They were all fine, easy to see the pictures had been taken close to each other.
"We'd better go or else we'll be late," Tao said, heading for the door.
"That didn't take up that much time," M-21 said with a snort as Takeo tied his hair back.
"Who knows?" Tao said, grinning at them while he changed his shoes. "Something could happen on the way there and we might not even make it to Ye Ran."
...That was true, knowing their luck. Just in case, M-21 hurried to get his shoes on.
xOx
M-21 glanced at Takeo in time to see Takeo take a picture of him. "Tao got to you too?" Of course Tao had — he was Tao.
Takeo smiled at him. "Both of you did, since you were taking pictures of everyone."
Oh. Huh.
"Heh, all right." M-21 pulled his phone out and raised an eyebrow at Takeo.
When Takeo nodded, M-21 took a picture of him.
xOx
The next time M-21 saw Takeo take a picture, he frowned, seeing the way Takeo stared at his screen. It was blank for a second before Takeo smiled at Regis and Seira, and then walked out of the living room.
Hn... Takeo tended to smile like that when he was trying to hide something...
Narrowing his eyes, M-21 followed him.
He found Takeo by the balcony, leaning back against the banister, his eyes on the screen of his phone.
"Takeo?" he said, approaching him.
"Huh?" Takeo's head snapped up, his body tensing. "Oh, M-21. What is it?" Takeo smiled at him.
M-21 didn't say anything, studying Takeo's features. "What's wrong?"
Takeo blinked at him, and then his smile faded. "I'm not sure what you mean."
M-21 sighed, moving to lean next to him. "You know exactly what I mean." But if Takeo didn't want to say, he wouldn't push.
"Ah, sorry." Takeo glanced at his phone again. "I like taking pictures to make sure my memories match up."
...Oh. Of course, he wasn't the only one with memory problems. At least he just had a blank space for his memories, rather than questioning if any of it was real. Other than that, he knew the memories he'd formed were real.
"Does it help?" M-21 asked.
Takeo smiled, this time his real one. "Yeah, it does."
"Good."
xOx
M-21 stumbled a step when Tao wrapped an arm around his shoulders, laughing. He hadn't lost that much blood in the fight, and his wounds had started to heal already.
"Your shirt lasted five minutes this time, not bad!" Tao grinned as M-21 rolled his eyes. "Almost hit your record there."
"It would have lasted if they hadn't used explosives," M-21 grumbled. His powers had stabilised enough that transforming alone didn't destroy his shirt anymore. But he'd taken the explosive point-blank and only his shirt had been damaged. He'd felt warm, like he'd basked next to a fire, but that was the extent of it.
Takeo landed next to them a few seconds later and Tao drew him into the hug as well.
"So," Tao said, only loosening his arm a bit, "how many pieces is your phone in?"
"I don't know if any of it's left," M-21 admitted, patting himself down. Even if it hadn't melted down in the explosion, he'd taken enough hits that it should have been destroyed.
M-21 found it and grimaced as he pulled it out his pocket, bringing some of his trousers with it. The plastic had melted on one side, enough to see where the other side had splintered and pushed through when it was soft.
"That technically counts as one piece," Tao said, whistling as he peered at M-21's phone. "It's not actually separated from each other."
"It's not going to be working like that either."
Tao snickered. "Well, it was about time we got new ones anyway."
...Wait. "Ah, shit," M-21 said grimacing, his hand tightening around what was left of the phone.
"What is it?" Takeo asked.
"All the pictures are gone." After all that time spent taking them…
"Oh, that." Tao grinned, shaking his head. "It's fine." How was it fine — they were all gone. "Did ya really think I'd go into all that trouble to take pictures and not make back-ups?"
...What?
"They're safe, M," Tao said, patting him. "The most annoying thing is going to be waiting for all the pictures to get onto our new phones."
M-21 relaxed, huffing. That was good.
And that meant once he was healed, he could start taking more pictures again.
I wanted to do wolf!M-21 helping with Dark Spear, but it didn't seem to want to be written.