Frankenstein glanced at the reservation list. Only one more reservation today, a party of two.

He checked the table setting and seating arrangements, satisfied with what he saw. The tableware was perfect placed, the silverware polished to perfection. He frowned slightly at the center piece, rearranging a few of the flowers before nodding his approval and retreating to the kitchen.

A few minutes later one of his coworkers informed him that his guests had arrived and, after collecting the menus, he retraced his steps back to the table.

His steps faltered ever so slightly as the two customers came into sight. They were both men.

It was a bit rare, but not unheard of, for men to visit the shop. Usually, though, they were accompanied by one or more women. And it was generally assumed that it had not been the man's idea to dine here. It was for this reason that, despite his own sexual orientation, he did not enjoy serving male customers.

In fact, the overall lack of male clientele was in large part why he had decided to work at a Butler Café in the first place.

For the most part, the Butler Café saw three types of female customers: shy and embarrassed, excited and talkative, or bold and flirtatious. Frankenstein excelled at making shy women feel at home, matching the enthusiasm of the easily excitable, and expertly returning the compliments and witty banter of the more flirtatious women.

Men, on the other hand, tended to either ignore him or make caustic comments when they thought he could not hear.

He had no patience for people like that.

Needless to say he was not looking forward to serving a table of exclusively men.

Not that he would let the customers know of his discomfort.

He walked confidently up to the side of the table and placed his arm across his waist, bowing slightly at the waist.

"Good evening, Masters," he said in perfect English as he laid the menus on the table. "My name is Frankenstein." He turned to the man of his right first. "May I pour you some tea?" He gestured elegantly to the traditional European teapot and tea cups that surrounded the center piece.

The man declined brashly, informing Frankenstein that he would pour the tea himself. Frankenstein nodded and smiled charmingly while inwardly scowling. Why would you come to a Butler Café just to serve yourself? Though now that he looked at him properly, it was possible he hadn't known it was a Butler Café. His long red hair and green eyes were distinctly Western, and Butler Cafes were certainly not common over there, if they existed at all. Perhaps he had made reservations without realizing what sort of Café they were, either because he lacked the language skills or simply because he did not know enough about this country's culture. It would explain why he had not only invited another man to accompany him, but also why he now appeared quite displeased with the whole arrangement.

Unless of course it had been his companion who had made the reservation.

He turned his attention to the man on his left, repeating his offer to pour the man a cup of tea. Almost before he could get the whole question out, the red-headed man interrupted.

"I will pour you some tea, Raizel." He smiled eagerly at his companion, completely ignoring Frankenstein.

Frankenstein kept his smile in place as he once again looked at the red-headed man, but he could feel his eyebrow twitching ever so slightly.

Well, it had certainly been this man who had made the reservations then. The reservation had been under the name 'Urokai Agvain,' not 'Raizel.' He couldn't help the small, vindictive voice in his head that cheered at the thought that this man was getting as little enjoyment out of the experience as Frankenstein.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the red-headed man's companion shake his head in a dignified manner.

Frankenstein looked at him, momentarily confused. The man stared back at him expectantly.

Oh? So this man wanted Frankenstein to pour him tea, and not the red-haired guy? Well at least this man understood the responsibility of a butler.

He gave the man a genuine smile, and the man returned it with a very small smile of his own. It was then that Frankenstein stopped to truly assess the man before him.

He was tall, likely near his own height, with hair the color of onyx that fell almost to his shoulders. His skin was very pale and completely unblemished, as if he had never spent a day in the sun in his life.

The man was unquestionably handsome. And Frankenstein was used to handsome. But nonetheless he stared into the man's eyes.

He had never seen anyone with eyes like his.

They were royal blue. Or at least they seemed that way on the surface. The longer Frankenstein stared the more colors he found. Midnight blue, sapphire blue, Persian blue, even sky blue. It was a sea of colors, and underneath was an even more fascinating sea of emotions. To the unobservant he would simply seem detached, but Frankenstein could see that there was so much more to him than that. His eyes spoke of great loneliness and small pleasures, perpetual dignity and occasional child-like wonder.

How was it possible for one man's eyes to be so expressive and yet so distant?

Their eyes only met for a second or two before the man – Raizel – broke the gaze, turning his head completely to look out the window.

Frankenstein blinked. What had he been doing?

Ah!

Frankenstein gathered himself and smiled widely at Raizel, seeing him glance in his direction, and hurried to comply with the man's wishes. He was a tad bit flustered at his lapse as a butler. He had never made a customer wait unduly for a request.

Though he had also never been so captivated by a customer's eyes before either.

A quiet 'tsk' brought Frankenstein back to reality and he looked over at Mr. Agvain with wide eyes. He had almost forgotten the man's existence. Really, this was all most unlike him.

Frankenstein cleared his throat, as if by clearing his throat he could also clear his mind.

He quickly arranged his expression into his normal smile.

"What may I get for you to eat this evening?" It was probably best to stick to his routine, otherwise he might continue making mistakes.

Mr. Agvain glanced briefly at the menu before pointing at one of the first items on the menu.

Frankenstein smiled and jotted it down on his notepad.

He turned toward Raizel, pen in hand, as he waited for him to speak.

Raizel stared wide-eyed at the menu, eyes moving rapidly from each picture to the next. Frankenstein smiled slightly. So Raizel enjoyed sweets? Well then Raizel, at least, was likely to enjoy the Butler Café. They had nothing but sweets.

He watched Raizel stare at the menu for another minute before a small frown appeared on his face. Was there nothing that he wanted? Perhaps he didn't like sweets and was trying, and failing, to find something more substantial.

"Is there something wrong Raizel? Should we go somewhere else?" Mr. Agvain's tone made it clear he was hoping for an affirmative response, but Raizel simply shook his head definitively.

And if Frankenstein hadn't been watching the man so closely, he might have missed Raizel's eyes glancing quickly up to his before darting back down again.

Frankenstein froze for a moment. The man had looked so perplexed. But what was confusing about a menu? Did he not know what any of it was? Did he not know how to read the menu? Did he have a question about one of the items and wanted Frankenstein to help him? Frankenstein watched as an almost imperceptible crease appeared between Raizel's eyebrows.

Was it because….?

Frankenstein chuckled quietly, earning a curious glance from Raizel and, unknown to him, a death glare from Mr. Agvain.

"It is rather hard to decide, isn't it?" Raizel's frown deepened as he nodded solemnly.

So he had been right, Raizel was just trying to decide what to order.

"May I make a suggestion?" Raizel's eyes shot to his and after a moment he nodded slowly.

"There is a special item that we offer that is not on the menu. I can assure you it is quite sweet and very delicious. Normally we only offer it to long-time customers, but for you I'll make an exception." He flashed Raizel his most charming smile and was quite pleased (extremely pleased in fact) when he noticed a very faint dusting of pink on Raizel's cheeks.

"Hmph. How can you know it'll be delicious when you're just the butler?" Frankenstein turned slowly toward Mr. Agvain after his scathing question and smiled. Not his normal smile. This was the smile he used when someone broke or spilled something and made a mess. It was a smile that made the recipient's blood run cold.

"Because I'm the one who makes it," he responded darkly. Frankenstein's smile widened when he noticed that Mr. Agvain shrank back at his tone.

He then turned and spoke directly to Raizel, ignoring Mr. Agvain completely as he collected the menus. "I'll have your food out for you as soon as possible."

Raizel nodded to him as if nothing had just gone down between him and the man's companion.

-O-

Frankenstein smiled slightly to himself as he gathered up his belongings and prepared to head home.

It had been a strange day for him. Normally he was the perfect butler. Precise, cordial, efficient, perceptive, and obedient.

Yet he had blatantly ignored and provoked the rude Mr. Agvain while doting on his companion, Raizel. He had surpassed himself on the quality and presentation of his special dessert for Raizel, and had been rewarded by wide eyes and a satisfied nod when he had asked if the dish was acceptable.

The man hadn't said a word the whole time he was here, and yet despite this (or perhaps because of it) Frankenstein was easily able to read the smallest changes in facial expressions and react accordingly.

He didn't normally expend so much effort purely for the sake of one first-time customer, but he did not regret it.

It was the first time he had felt like a true butler, not just butler at a Butler Café.

-O-

"Hey Frankenstein, can you do me a big favor? I really don't want to serve this customer." His coworker Shinwoo had his palms pressed together in front of his face and his head slightly bowed.

Frankenstein glanced at him, confused. Not long after he had first started working here he had told his colleagues that he wouldn't mind taking difficult customers from them if they wanted. He had always enjoyed a challenge. To say nothing of the fact that he prided himself on the fact that he was an excellent butler who could handle any customer.

But this was the first time any of his coworkers had asked him so sincerely and desperately for help. Exactly how difficult was this customer?

"Well, I don't mind taking them off your hands, but why are you so adamant against serving this person?" Shinwoo was fairly competent himself, and rarely asked to be reassigned.

Shinwoo frowned. "Well, this is the second time this week he's showed up, and I served him last time. He comes by himself, which is kinda weird, but he's so rude! Not belligerent or anything, but he barely even glanced at me when I spoke to him, and he didn't say a single word the whole time! It was so awkward! And now he's here again and I just don't think I can deal with him again."

Oh, so it was a male customer? Frankenstein sighed a little, but told Shinwoo not to worry. He had already agreed anyway.

Shinwoo cheered and thanked him wholeheartedly before telling him the table number, and Frankenstein grabbed a menu and headed for the single-table with the difficult customer.

As he rounded the corner he stared at the table in the corner by a window, more than a little surprised.

It was Raizel.

Raizel was here, by himself, apparently for the second time this week.

Frankenstein approached him slowly, feeling a genuine, slightly incredulous smile start to form on his face. He never thought he'd see him again.

As he reached the side of the table Raizel turned away from the window and met his gaze.

Raizel smiled.

"Frankenstein."

Frankenstein breathed caught momentarily as Raizel spoke. It was the first word Frankenstein had ever heard him say, and it had been his name.

Frankenstein placed his arm across his waist and bowed deeply from the waist.

"Welcome back, Master. May I serve you some tea?"

-xxxxxxx-

A/N: This is dedicated to an-earl who, in their Noblesse Icebreaker post on Tumblr, said they wanted more Franky and Rai fics. I've never really written a Franky/Rai fluff fic so I decided to give it a try when I saw their post. I hope you like :)

I had a lot of fun with this fic. I wanted to keep Franky and Rai as in-character as possible, but I also wanted to make them both human (no supernatural stuff or anything) and my first thought was BUTLER CAFÉ!

So I did some research and loosely based this Café off of one in Tokyo called "Swallowtail," which looked very European-based, professional and elegant.

And yes, Urokai had asked Raizel out on a date, and no, it did not go well. Urokai was not Rai's type xD

This fic is kinda cheesy, kinda cliché, very fluffy, and I enjoyed writing every word of it :)