This is for Kurasaika of tumblr, who did the adorable cover illustration of Thy Daily Ramyeon.
They requested something cute with Rai and Franken, then when I asked about a more specific prompt some H/C.
This was the second time he had come into the lab since they came home from the fight. Tao got the sense that he was a bit miffed that Boss had succeeded in keeping him out of the fight, but Tao was glad! RK finally got to do a good job helping out so he didn't take the field.
But why was he carrying a stack of plates?
The cookie machine beeped, and Raizel started carefully placing cookies on the top plate. Then he carried it over to where M-21 was lying on one of the recovery cots and handed it to him.
M-21 took it with a little surprise in his eyes, but when he handed you something you took it. The cookies were for him, and he was handing them out to M-21? And the rest of RK – Tao got the next plate.
"Thank you!" Tao said, feeling like the cookies were a reward for succeeding at the whole knight thing, even knowing that he didn't quite think that way.
He nodded, and brought the next plate to Takeo. The remaining cookies were piled on the bottom plate – the biggest – and he turned around and went upstairs.
Regis had managed to change into his pyjamas before collapsing into bed. He hoped Seira was also getting some sleep – she preferred not to since she reached her majority, because it was childish, although it was no shame to be damaged in honorable battle and need to recover.
He was awakened by the sound of the tea cart wheels stopping outside his bedroom door, followed by a knock. "Come in," he said.
Sir Raizel opened the door, then picked up a plate and a teacup with saucer from the tea cart. Carrying them in, he put them on Regis' bedside table.
"Thank you," Regis said automatically, picking up the cup. He remembered his parent – and if he was away on duty, some of the clan's adults – bringing him tea and something to eat after he exerted himself training. It was an honor to have the noblesse acknowledge that Regis had fought hard despite being so young – but his brow creased when he realized that the houseowner might not be happy that his Master had bothered himself with trivial things.
Sir Raizel simply nodded elegantly and went to the door, shutting it behind him. The cart rolled over to Miss Seira's door, and he knocked there again.
Regis inspected the plate, and picked up a cookie.
The next time the elevator door opened, it was him again, pushing a tea cart laden with three cups and saucers.
'He brought us tea!' Tao realized. Wasn't that what you did when someone was sick, you brought them food in bed, and liquids to stay hydrated?
The first cup went to Takeo, Raizel leaning over a little to hand it to him elegantly. Then he went back to the cart to bring the next to Tao, and then to M-21.
"Thank you, sir," Takeo said, smiling, and M-21 nodded his thanks.
"Yeah," Tao agreed with his own smile, wondering what the black things on the shelf underneath were as he returned to the cart to pick them up.
The first was put down on Tao's lap – a gaming laptop! So they had something to do while they healed up! Tao opened it up and found that the chat client was already open and a chatroom set up, with messages from Ikhan and the others already there waiting. That meant he must have got the laptops ready for them, got them logged in and everything and let his friends know to send messages while he was waiting for the tea to be ready? "Thank you!" Tao said, fingers already flashing over the keyboard to tell Ikhan first that they would all be okay as Takeo put down his teacup to open up his laptop, M-21 watching them. Hmm, what would be a good cover story to tell the kids for why they would be absent for a few days?
He nodded again, seeming satisfied, and went over to the cookie machine, programming it for another batch of cookies. Then he went upstairs, taking the tea cart with him. A couple of minutes later, Regis and Seira responded to the chat.
The door swung open. Frankenstein knew without looking that it had to be Master, no one else would come in his room. Forget coming in without knocking.
Frankenstein was lying in his bed, stomach wrapped securely to keep any blood from getting on the sheets. It would have been neater to recover in a tube, but the children needed to stay where the lab equipment could monitor them, and he didn't want to be floating there, making them wonder just how badly he must have been hurt to need the tube when he'd never gone into one of them before.
He heard the teacart wheel into the room, and Master came to his bedside, pushing the cart. On top of the cart was a plate of tea cookies, which Master handed to him, two cups of tea and a glass teapot with the sugar bowl.
Frankenstein's eyes softened. "Master…"Master wanted to have tea with him, even if Frankenstein couldn't sit in the living room with Master?
He might have felt bad about Master exerting himself – and Frankenstein's failure to bring Master his tea! – except that he'd succeeded in keeping Master out of the fight. So Master was less exhausted than he would have been, at least. Had more energy for things like this, instead of being so tired because of Frankenstein's failure to protect him and keep him well.
Master poured tea for them both as Frankenstein watched, handing Frankenstein his cup and then mixing sugar into his own. Then he brought Frankenstein's desk chair over to sit at the side of Frankenstein's bed as Frankenstein shifted to prop himself up on pillows so that he could sit with his Master and drink tea. As they had centuries ago, and he could hope they would again centuries from now.
Master left after refilling Frankenstein's teacup, taking the tea cart with him, and Frankenstein lay back in the pillows and closed his eyes. He'd thought he would have trouble sleeping, but seeing Master so well was a relief. Now it was time to focus on his own health, so that he could recover and bring Master his tea again as soon as possible…
Raizel carefully prepared a larger pot of tea. He would refill Regis' cup, then Seira's, and then take the cart downstairs to the enhanced humans. While he was there, he would turn on the machine that made the experimental ramyeon. That way, there would be enough bowls for everyone to have family dinner at the same time, even if they should stay in bed instead of all gathering in one place. According to Yuna, the sick were supposed to drink plenty of liquids. Raizel was not surprised that ramyeon was good for the sick: it was one of those amazing human inventions, like chat rooms so that people could communicate with friends who were elsewhere. Chat rooms worked even outside the range of a mental link between pureblood nobles.
With the computers, the children could play games even though they weren't well enough to gather around the living room table. It would also keep them from getting 'bored.' Boredom was a human emotion, but the closest thing that Raizel could think of to it was the way he had felt, when centuries passed without anyone coming to visit him. It was very important to keep the children from feeling that way when they were already injured and hurting.
After everyone had ramyeon, he would go to the store to buy Get Well Soon cards. He would sign those the way their classmates signed Shinwoo's cast, since the children weren't injured enough to need casts.
When he went down to bring the children more tea, Tao was asleep with the laptop on top of his stomach, rising and falling as he breathed. Raizel carefully picked it up and put it on the bedside table.
"Thank you, sir," Takeo said again when he poured the tea.
"Thanks," M-21 said.
Raizel suppressed a sigh. He didn't do this for gratitude – if anything, he was a little miffed that everyone conspired to prevent him from helping to protect the home they had here. But emotions like that were difficult to express in words, and he didn't want to risk upsetting the children by saying the wrong thing.
Thank goodness for tea and ramyeon. The warm feelings from drinking tea with someone, the feeling Raizel experienced when Shinwoo brought him and everyone else bowls of ramyeon for the first time – those were easy to understand.