What if M-21 entered into a contract with Raizel?
(M-21's wounds are worse than originally in the story)
Warnings: Potential slash in later chapters, as well as violence
Noblesse is not mine, I simply exert my will upon the characters.
It was a relief when M-21 woke to find that he could fall back on the last morning he had with Alpha as a blueprint for his behavior.
After carefully sliding out of bed again, he grabbed his uniform for the day and decided he had time to take his shower before awakening the Noble.
Once he was standing under the cascading water, he let out a sigh of relief. With everything that had been going on lately, it was good to just stand silently under the hot water and let the warmth relax him.
Still, he couldn't afford to spend too much time relaxing when he needed to wake Alpha soon, so he rushed through getting dressed and headed back to his room while still working on towel-drying his hair.
Seeing the Noble still so peacefully asleep, on his back with his head tilted to the side and away from the door, M-21 felt himself relax again after his rush to get ready. He allowed his towel to simply settle on his shoulders as he walked over to the other side of the bed and leaned over the Noble.
A drop of water splashed down onto the Noble's face.
M-21 jerked back a step, a mix of healthy paranoia and fear making the wolf look around for Frankenstein's sinister aura flaring at the insult of his master being dripped on. When the blond failed to appear and Raizel continued to sleep, M-21 relaxed and stepped closer again.
"Raizel-nim." A pause. "Raizel-nim, it's time to wake up."
'He's really a sound sleeper.'
Another moment and he tentatively reached out a hand and nudged the Noble's shoulder, "Raizel-nim."
The first flutter of eyelashes had him releasing his alpha, and he quickly moved back to observe without crowding the Noble.
Red eyes slowly opened, and there was only a flicker of confusion at waking up in M-21's room before the brunette was sitting up and gracefully sliding out of the bed.
It was too awkward to just stand there drying his hair as the Noble left, so M-21 followed him out into the living room where he could faintly hear Frankenstein and their two new additions moving around.
The moment the Noble entered the room, the scientist turned away from where he had been evaluating Takeo and Tao's uniforms—probably making sure they had everything 'just so'—and hesitated in his greeting as his eyes flicked to M-21 then back to his master.
The scientist's usual smile immediately made an appearance afterwards, but the hesitation still confirmed to the wolf that Frankenstein was upset that the two were together. "Good morning, Master."
The Noble simply nodded in reply and headed over to his room—M-21 had never gone near it, but he imagined it was much nicer than his own simply on principle—while M-21 focused his attention on his fellow experiments and not on the scientist he was sure wanted to cut him open.
"You both must have gotten up early," he comments in an attempt to tear his focus from imagining gruesome ways Frankenstein could kill him.
"We wanted to be sure we were ready for our first day," Takeo answered as Tao nodded and began to type away on something with his little hand-held laptop.
M-21 accepted the explanation with a nod. He had done much the same on his first day.
Looking down at the damp towel still on his shoulders, he quickly turned and left the room, "I'll be leaving in about half an hour, but you two can go ahead if you want."
After tidying his hair a bit and discarding the towel, he quickly wandered back towards the living room, expecting Frankenstein to be in the kitchen making something for Raizel as the Noble in question drank a morning cup of tea.
He was mostly correct.
Frankenstein and Alpha were certainly where he had expected them to be, but the newcomers were currently engaged in eating breakfast—a bowl of some cereal he could practically taste the sweetness of that one of the kids must have brought over for some reason sat in front of Tao, and Takeo was displaying markedly better taste with re-heated leftovers from last night's dinner.
M-21 paused for a moment at the sight only to have Tao catch him staring and look up with a grin. "We thought we'd wait for you since you're the one who knows where everything is! Ah, and good morning!"
Takeo also looked up long enough to meet M-21's surprised gaze, "Good morning."
"Ah. Morning," M-21 said in turn. It was so…normal, yet neither of these two seemed to have any difficulties with it.
Deciding not to dwell on it, M-21 headed to the fridge, carefully staying out of Frankenstein's way, and was relieved to find enough of last night's dinner to probably feed two normal people. He took all of it, though with some guilt. He was just so hungry lately, and he only hoped no one noticed how much more he was eating now—gluttony wasn't the worst thing to be accused of, but it would still be embarrassing.
Right on cue, Frankenstein decided to speak, "You've been eating more ever since…your injuries healed."
Maybe that was Frankenstein's preferred alternative to, 'Since you formed a contract with my master, you waste of space.'
Stiffening, M-21 responded quietly, "I've been hungrier lately."
"Hmm," Frankenstein murmured without missing a beat at the stove where he was making some sort of omelet, "your metabolism must be going up now that your powers are becoming stronger." And as he says it, M-21 can almost taste the unhappiness in the man's scent. It seemed any reminder of the contract was unwelcome.
"That would make sense I guess." He murmured quietly. All he could think of now was how much he needed to get out of this kitchen—no reason to tempt Frankenstein into harming his person if he could help it.
"I'll make a packet of what you should eat to cope with it—some foods will do more to fill you than others," the blond continued, though with an air of distraction now as though he was already working on the problem.
Surprised, M-21 nodded then realized the scientist couldn't see him and instead vocalized his thanks to which Frankenstein hummed in acknowledgement. As he left the kitchen with his plate, he began to second-guess everything he thought he knew about how Frankenstein felt about the contract.
'Maybe he's getting used to it?' The wolf thought as Takeo drank a cup of tea and Tao typed away on his hand-held computer, 'Or maybe he's just so dedicated to Alpha that he's working past it?'
After more thought and analysis, M-21 finished his breakfast and decided that it was probably a mixture of the two that had the scientist acting a bit more like he used to.
Walking to work with Tao and Takeo made him twitchy. It had taken time to get used to the children—who only really walked with him after school when they were going to the house—and he still wasn't used to having the two who used to be enemies around him. With one on each side, he felt for the first half of the walk like he was being escorted back to the Union.
Whenever either of the two came close to brushing against him, he had the irrational yet almost overwhelming urge to bare his teeth like a wild animal. Even Takeo who had actually been somewhat kind to him while he was with DA-5 wasn't an exception—aside from the fact that M-21 figured he'd go after Tao first.
It didn't help that Tao was either whistling or chatting the entire time they walked.
Thus, reaching the school was a relief, even if the grounds were bare of just about everyone else—they had come early so M-21 could first show his new co-workers around the school then to the small room set aside for them.
Tao continued to chatter, and Takeo occasionally asked questions. Between Tao's constant and seemingly endless good humor and Takeo's quiet and, surprisingly, not unwelcome presence, M-21 slowly began to adjust. Of course, whenever Tao started to talk in that over-enthusiastic way of his, the wolf felt like biting him.
As it came closer to when the students would be arriving, they collectively migrated to the front of the school and only had to wait a few minutes—during which a small crowd of students strangely began to surround them—for Shinwoo and the rest to show up.
"Ahjussi!" Shinwoo's dulcet tones belted out.
"Tao-hyung, Takeo-hyung!" Ikhan added with a waving hand.
Tao happily waved back—was there anything he didn't look happy while doing?
Once the group had reached them, the crowd thinned out to watch from afar, and M-21 was confused at how much giggling and whispering was going on—especially from the girls.
"Are you working here from now on, Hyung?" Ikhan asked excitedly.
"Yep! We've got the uniforms and everything, plus we got Ahjussi here to give us the grand tour!"
"Cool!" Shinwoo cut in with a laugh.
Yuna smiled tentatively before suddenly looking at her phone then stuffing it into her bag, "We need to get going, class will start soon!"
That said, Shinwoo looked a bit panicked, "Ack, Pedro hates when I'm late! Bye!"
Less than a minute later, M-21 was once again alone with Tao and Takeo, but after the way the children treated them, it felt far less intrusive. "We should start patrolling. Do you two have any more questions?"
"Mmm, nope!"
"No, thank you."
And so the morning went on feeling like most other mornings with M-21 and Takeo doing most of the patrolling after Tao rushed off to set up some monitors in the security room—after asking for permission from Frankenstein, of course.
And, of course, because it was M-21 and Takeo doing the patrolling, patrol passed quietly.
Lunch, however, was a different story.
When M-21 headed inside to grab lunch for both of them—Takeo was up on the roof keeping watch—he was confronted by an exuberant Tao carrying a large bag. From what M-21's nose told him, the bag was full of a variety of foods—too many for him to pick apart without a great deal of concentration—and the wolf followed the hacker up to the roof to join Takeo.
Upon noticing them, Takeo turned towards them and raised his eyebrows skeptically to which M-21 gave him a shrug.
"I've got alarms set up for if anyone breaches the school's perimeter, and the cameras are up, too, so we can relax for a bit." Tao stated with a grin as he carefully set down his bag and spread out a large travel blanket.
Even Takeo seemed shocked as the hacker revealed a liter of soda that—when poured into the fluted glasses—was colorless like some alcohols. The wolf and sniper stood in shocked silence as Tao continued to unload his bag and reveal various sandwiches, sushi, various sides, and then a variety of sweets.
"Where did you get all of this?" M-21 asked as he looked at the lay-out in wonder. There was enough room for each of them to sit on the blanket still, but only barely.
"I always have some money on hand, so I popped into different places before coming back with the camera equipment." Tao grinned self-importantly as though incredibly smug at their surprise.
"You always have been resourceful," Takeo murmured as he sat down.
Tao suddenly plopped down as well, and wouldn't stop looking at M-21 until the scarred man eventually settled himself gracefully onto the remaining free space.
He shouldn't have been surprised when the hacker suddenly thrust a glass at him—and Takeo—and led them in a quick toast.
Though he was nervous to start, M-21 quickly discerned that the scent coming from one of the rolls was beef in some sort of zesty and sweet sauce. He had never seen such a dish, but after taking a bite he found himself quite enjoying it.
Overall, the meal ended up being quite interesting, and he was allowed to sit in silence as Tao blathered on about the types of foods, where the new cameras were, and a variety of other things that M-21 ended up tuning out.
As lunch came to its' end, both of his fellows leaned back—Tao exaggerated the movement—and it was Takeo who asked about the gym again.
"After all of this food, I definitely want to look at that gym you told us about, M-21."
Smirking slightly, M-21 nodded. "Like I said, we can go after work." He paused for a moment before adding, "Though I doubt we'll be having a meal like this every day."
Tao preened at the comment.
"Mmmm!" Tao stood on his tip-toes to stretch himself as much as possible. "Not much to do, but it's nice to do a good day's work."
Aside from the impromptu banquet the three had on the roof, the entire day had gone smoothly, and an hour after classes had ended they were on their way to the warehouse.
Of course, this time M-21 knew enough to position them so that Takeo was between himself and the hacker—which put the red-head at Tao's chattering mercy, but they had been teammates. He had to be used to it, right? Besides, it was every man for himself.
Fortunately for Takeo, it didn't take too long to get to the warehouse considering Frankenstein had probably picked it for its nearness to the school. Actually, M-21 thought, based on the look of the interior, Frankenstein had occasionally used it for practicing with his own powers rather than for storage purposes—the scientist could certainly afford it.
As M-21 approached the cleverly concealed palm scanner, he could hear Tao's chatter heighten in pitch, which culminated in an 'ooooooh,' and various questions that M-21 chose to ignore as the scanner did its work.
Identity confirmed, the heavy door slid open, and the experiments were treated to the sight of reinforced concrete flooring that was looking a bit worn and thick steel walls sporting the occasional dent or claw mark. Off to the side protected by another wall separating it from the main area were a variety of exercise machines that M-21 knew could be modified for abilities beyond that of normal humans. Within this sectioned-off area was also a small locker room that with a shower, toilet, and a closet full of hangars—it figured that Frankenstein would have that instead of folding his nice clothes.
Behind him, M-21 could hear Tao whistle in surprise. "Woooow, there's some nice equipment in here."
Takeo just went to inspect the weight machine with obvious interest, which left M-21 stuck standing awkwardly next to Tao. For something to do, he entered the locker room and began changing into the white tank and grey sweat pants he left there.
As he was pulling on his shirt, Takeo joined him and M-21 pointed to several extra sets of work-out clothes over on a shelf. "You can use those for now, though you'll probably want to get your own because of the fit." Then, as Tao entered the room as well, M-21 left and headed for the weight machine.
When Tao and Takeo emerged, M-21 couldn't hold back an amused smirk, which Takeo responded to by tugging at the clothes as though he could somehow make them fit better if he kept adjusting them. Tao just grinned. Of the two, Tao was probably better off though the shirt was a bit large on him. Takeo, on the other hand, kept pulling his pants down then up as the pants fell to his lower calf rather than tugging comfortably right above his ankle.
Eventually, M-21 couldn't hold in an amused snort which earned him a rather pouty glare from Takeo that only served to increase the wolf's amusement and make Tao snicker.
Keeping his eyes off both of them, Takeo stalked over to the chin-up bar. Fighting to return his lips to a neutral expression, M-21 continued his reps as Tao trotted merrily over to the tread mill.
The first half an hour was almost enjoyable. It didn't take long to adjust to having Takeo working alongside him, and even Tao settled to a fairly non-disturbing hum after a little while, but as time passed an urge began to bubble in M-21 that he was slowly becoming familiar with.
He had gone shopping while Alpha was away at the school while being on sick leave and that had been a longer separation than now. So, why was he beginning to wish he was back at the house already? The house where Alpha would be waiting and quietly drinking tea…
Clenching his jaw, M-21 continued his reps with greater vigor and concentration, determined to focus only on the movement of his body and not his desire to be back close to Alpha.
He lasted a total of an hour and a half before silently heading for the showers. He started the water on warm, and then switched it to cold as quickly as he could in an effort to tear his focus away from his alpha.
It worked a bit, and when Tao and Takeo joined him in the locker room—Tao chattering away—he focused on Tao's voice and Takeo's quiet murmurs in response to hold off the un-yielding desire to be back with his alpha.
Takeo was quickly becoming his favorite of the two newcomers. The red-head not only was fine with walking in silence, but M-21 could see him making a conscious effort to keep Tao from bothering the wolf. His gut twisted, and it took much more concentration than it should to keep himself from running back to the house. Walking through the door was a relief, but it felt like his entire body settled as he laid eyes on his alpha.
Raizel was in the living room drinking tea as usual, but seemed to quickly understand what M-21 needed considering he stood up and headed into the hallway once the two had locked eyes. Relieved, M-21 nodded to Tao and Takeo before departing in the same direction with forced casualness.
As soon as he was out of sight, the wolf picked up speed, rapidly following the Noble's scent without thinking about it. The trail led to M-21's room, and M-21 took a moment to compose himself before carefully entering the room and closing the door behind him.
Raizel was sitting on the side of the bed, back straight and watching M-21 with an implacable calm in his ruby eyes. Eager for contact, M-21 dropped to the ground next to the Noble's feet and closed his eyes as his head naturally leant against the grey-clad thigh.
The moment they touched, he could feel the annoying itch in his mind shouldbewithAlpha flee in the wake of a bone-deep relaxation that made the wolf give a soft moan of contentment. It only got better as long fingers began carding through his hair, and M-21 released a soft sigh.
The silence continued for a few more minutes before M-21 broke it with a sleepy question—he never would have asked anything if he had been his usual self.
"What is school like?" Every time Shinwoo groaned about 'homework,' or Pedro, or math, M-21 wondered what the truth was and what was exaggeration. School seemed to be an experience everyone—even those shows the kids occasionally watched—took for granted as something everyone experienced.
Half the time M-21 had sat with the kids to watch an episode, he had found himself alternatively confused and shocked at how teenagers were said to act—and at the problems they found overwhelming.
Really, there was so much emphasis on dating that M-21 wondered how they managed to have time for school work at all. M-21 couldn't remember dating, and he had no desire to date. The whole thing looked like a never-ending horror of decisions.
"It is strange," Alpha murmured, and M-21 came back to the moment and away from his increasingly confused thoughts with those simple words. "There are various subjects and the one called math is exceedingly strange."
"Math?" the wolf repeated in a murmur. Louder, he replied, "Shinwoo complains about it a lot, and I've heard the rest talk about how hard it is—except for Ikhan."
Raizel nodded solemnly, "It is a confusing subject. Even Frankenstein was unsure of how to explain it."
"Hmmm," M-21 hummed thoughtfully. "And are those shows on tv telling the truth about dating and bullying at schools? I've never really been inside, so…"
"I have not noticed it," Raizel stated with a furrowed brow as though unsure of his answer.
"That's probably good," M-21 sighed. "Those shows make high school look horrible—something worth forgetting," the wolf added with a self-deprecating smirk.
The Noble remained silent this time, and M-21 decided to stay quiet since he'd evidently put his foot in his mouth. Sighing, he closed his eyes, but when he next breathed in, there was something extra in the Noble's scent that made the wolf open his eyes abruptly.
Even with how much stronger he had grown since the contract began, M-21 hadn't been able to apply that strength to Raizel. The Noble had his own scent just as all the others, but even though M-21 could sense Frankenstein's moods, the brunette had been the source of a constant, unchanging scent.
But now…Now, the Noble's scent had an undercurrent the wolf could barely read because there was so much there, and it all flowed together like so many ingredients tossed together into the same pot of strong, distracting broth.
Entranced, the wolf breathed in deeply through his nose, and focused on the strongest scent after the 'base.'
M-21 tensed, feeling entirely out of his depth.
The Noble was sad. Why was he sad? Had M-21 done something?
"I am fine," that soft, smooth voice interrupted with only the slightest hint of emotion—a hint he wouldn't have caught only days ago, "there is no need for you to worry."
And just like that, the grey felt himself relax into the Noble's strokes once more.
"Sorry," he muttered feeling like he had just been caught peeping at the forbidden.
"There is no need for apology; with this the bond will become more equitable."
M-21 frowned before suddenly remembering something else Alpha had said.
"You may become more attuned with my state of mind, but that will not be until the bond has settled."
"Wait, so this means the bond is…settling?"
"It is a good sign."
"So, I'm going to be getting better at reading you?" M-21 asked guiltily.
"Yes," the Noble replied, though there was a gentle chiding to his tone now, "and I do not mind—it is only fair considering my own abilities."
'He sounds relieved,' the wolf thought as he closed his eyes again, 'was he feeling guilty that he was reading me? What was it he said, that he couldn't give me privacy anymore?'
Before he dropped into a light doze, M-21 took all those little things he had noticed about the Noble and finally pieced them together in a realization that he accidentally murmured aloud.
"You're a really good person, aren't you?"
The two sat there as time seemed to stand still with M-21's head resting in the Noble's lap and Raizel's left hand tangled in grey until a gentle knock sounded at the door. Roused by the sound, M-21 shifted upwards with his right arm curved around his alpha's back and his left on the Noble's knees to ensure continued contact as he lifted his head.
M-21 blinked sleepily as he eyed the door for a moment, and then took a sniff of the air. "It's Frankenstein," he murmured as the scent of soap and the lab slowly wafted to him. It took a long moment after saying that for M-21 to remember that Frankenstein probably wouldn't be okay with seeing his master with a failed experiment in his lap.
He almost jumped to his feet at the thought, and a moment later he was across the room and opening the door for Frankenstein who proceeded to give him a polite smile that made M-21's stomach clench. In response, the wolf opened the door further and stepped aside to allow the scientist to see Alpha.
"Ah, Master, dinner is ready." Frankenstein announced with a far less sinister smile—M-21 knew he hadn't been imaging the scientist's annoyance! And then the words sunk in, and M-21 looked at the alarm clock on the far side of the bed with shock.
'It's that late already?' The wolf thought with no little surprise. They had to have been sitting in here for an hour, yet…yet he felt like they hadn't had long enough. 'Oh, I fell asleep, didn't I?' The grey realized with a start.
He could remember everything else, but it was almost laughable that he had fallen asleep—he didn't like being so vulnerable in front of anyone.
Focusing his attention back on the elder duo, M-21 stepped to the side to allow both to exit the room before him as they all acted as if nothing had happened—as if M-21 wasn't becoming something new, something he didn't understand.
Sorry this took so long—my only excuse is that I was stuck on this one part that just would NOT cooperate.
As always, reviews are welcomed. :-)
Also, about the locker room—chalk most of this up to Frankenstein being Frankenstein and thus over-prepared and willing to spend plenty on what he is actually going to use. Or that Raizel is going to use. -_-
