This chapter was beta'd, but I checked this after it posted and some spaces and words seem to have vanished from the document. I've fixed a few resulting errors, but please let me know if you spot anything I missed.

"Ah, Rael," the human said only after opening the door to the home office where he'd given Rael a desk in the corner, facing the entrance.

"Yes, sir?" Rael asked, standing up cautiously and then inwardly snarling at himself. Composure! Keeping humans from affecting him was why he'd gone on that training trip! This might be a dangerous human, one even his father acknowledged, but he was Kertia and they didn't show they were intimidated.

Frankenstein's mask of a smile lost the worrying anticipation and grew pointed.

He didn't need to repeat the words: just looking at that expression Rael could hear him wondering, again, 'A pureblood Kertia who can't hide behind a mask?'

Also, Rael couldn't start going to school with Seira and start his real training there until he mastered this. The Noblesse's bonded had explained to him (slowly, using small words, with his foot on Rael's chest during their 'sparring' session on that island) that 'Chairman Lee' was supposed to be a harmless, soft human. If a noble pretending to be a young human seemed to be scared by him, other humans would notice, especially when those humans were trained to notice when children were upset and find out the reason.

He fixed the smile that was the human version of proper courtesies on his face, while nobles had more dignified expressions, and was relieved when Frankenstein gave him a nod of approval.

Then his teacher's expression grew dangerously pleased again.

Aargh!

"Well, now that a few last-minute matters have been dealt with, I'm off to assassinate Ignes and Roctis Kravei," Sir Raizel's Bonded said pleasantly, ignoring the fact that Rael's smile had gone frozen stiff for a full second. "Please do look after Master while I'm gone."

Frankenstein was leaving and Rael would be alone here with Sir Raizel and Miss Seira (…and those other annoying people, but they weren't anything he couldn't crush, and he'd welcome the opportunity to prove it).

…What was that about Ignes Kravei?

No. No, he didn't… there was no need to think about her. Not anymore.

Hearing her name had stripped the smile from his face, although he managed to say, "Thank you, sir," and bow properly.

He looked up to see Frankenstein examining him. Not dismissively, the way he had when they first met and Rael kept revealing his ignorance, or even critically. There was a definite threat of violence to it, but not directed at Rael? It was hard to figure out, especially when the expression vanished a moment later behind a harmless smile. "Miss Seira will be handling Master's meals, and she and Regis will be his attendants while he is at school and outside the house. You will see to his tea, and attend him while he is at home. While you are not attending Master, I want you to pick up my paperwork from the school, make copies of it, and fill the copies out to the best of your ability, based on the manuals I've given you to study."

"And the correspondence?"

"Continue doing what you've been doing."

Using the 'internet' to gather information – one of the duties of the Kertia – on whoever sent it, and anything in the letter he wasn't familiar with, and determine how urgent the correspondence was for 'Chairman Lee' to answer, the way he would have to sort priorities for his brother and on the battlefield. Yes, human affairs weren't important to the Kertia, but this was an exercise. If he wanted to prove Rajak could trust him to help with the clan while his brother trained to make up for the weakness of Kartas – and he did – then he had no choice.

"Or… hmm. You've been studying diligently alongside Master, I'm told." The Noblesse studied at night, when the humans and still-growing Regis had gone to bed and weren't there to disturb him. He had allowed Rael to sit in his presence, and nodded his approval when Rael opened one of the manuals on organization Frankenstein had assigned him, so Rael followed the Noblesse's example and read the things Frankenstein gave him.

The other humans might be asleep at those hours, but Frankenstein wasn't, and the enhanced human would leave him alone instead of finding something for him to do if he was attending the Noblesse. Obviously because that was a far more important duty.

"I want you to start writing short summaries of the letters, e-mails and longer memos I'm sent, in under a hundred words, with the date and sender and other information that would tell your brother how urgent it is to deal with that report, and if he needs to read the full report himself. If, of course, your brother was trying to protect and advance the interests of Ye Ran instead of Lukedonia. An important part of managing intelligence is being able to sort through the deluge of information and find the hints of enemy activity and opportunities for action. I'll critique your work when I return, and once it's at an adequate level, I'll have Tao start giving you a selection of the information he's gathering on potential Union activity, so you can sharpen your analysis skills on that as well."

Not just using the school to pretend to manage the clan, but the real work of the Kertia?

Frankenstein nodded in approval to see Rael's eagerness. "Once we're both satisfied with the quality of your analysis skills, Miss Seira has been writing reports to Lukedonia and keeping Clan Leaders informed of what information she deems relevant. Sending the raw data together with your analyses for the attention of the Kertia Clan Leader would be a good way of showing your brother the progress you've made, don't you think?"

"Already?" the word slipped out. He was going to be allowed to start doing this now, even though he'd barely begun jumping through the hoops the human had taken great pleasure in laying out for him?

"Your combat training will be of assistance to your brother once you've learned enough for it to be worth his time to come here and train with you." Since Rael was exiled from Lukedonia temporarily. "Your stealth training will be of use once your combat skills have progressed enough for your brother to be willing to assign you Union infiltration missions. Intelligence-gathering and analysis skills can help your clan now. That's why I've focused on that part of your training, instead of drilling you in the proper courtesies so you don't embarrass yourself in front of Master, Miss Seira or Master's friends." His teacher (and Miss Seira's) smiled. "Of course, drilling you in the proper courtesies can be combined with combat survival training, if you'd rather spend less time in this office with meaningless words and more time in my lab being patched up…"

Takeo was used to falling asleep in suboptimal positions from DA-5. Leaning against something warm, with the rest of him on a soft surface, didn't register as uncomfortable or unusual compared to helicopters, perches where he was being graded on his ability to not move, even in sleep, or mud.

It wasn't a tube or an unpadded lab table.

Someone touching him after his mind started rapidly waking up wasn't unusual either: very often, sensing the proximity of someone like Shark about to wake him was what woke Takeo up. Back then. Lesser scientists and lab techs taking readings, working on him while they thought he was asleep or didn't care whether or not he was.

A hand touching his shoulder, only to withdraw, without any order for him to wake up and get to work. The hand patted his shoulder again, without any sense of hurry or demand.

Takeo lifted his head and opened his eyes, and found that the thing he'd been resting his head on was Raizel's shoulder.

It was strange how strange it didn't feel. He'd avoided getting too close to Raizel, or doing anything that could be viewed as a threatening move for a long time when he came to the house, because he'd gotten Frankenstein's very pointed message that if Takeo so much as laid a finger on Raizel, Frankenstein was going to murder him. He'd gotten it loud and clear and very literally beaten into him. Stabbed. Stabbed into him.

Instead, Takeo found himself considering just going back to sleep, because this was comfortable. Not physically comfortable, not as much as his bed, but… like sitting on this couch, drinking tea in the afternoons.

No, Takeo thought, he shouldn't impose. Knowing Raizel, he was stuck here unmoving all night when Takeo slept, because nobles considered disturbing people rude and Raizel was Raizel. "Sorry," he said, smiling and sitting up. "I'll let you get changed." Into a slightly different school uniform.

It wasn't anywhere near dawn yet, but there was enough ambient light for Takeo's eyes (sniper's eyes – he knew the experiment type model number) to see Raizel clearly. Maybe his color vision wasn't as acute as it could be, especially since so many of the stray lights on kitchen equipment were one color or another, but except for his skin tone Raizel was more or less monochrome.

Except for his eyes.

They weren't reflective, like a cat's eyes – Takeo's eyes did have a reflective mode, but he kept it off most of the time because of the risk it would give him away. Either his position, or the fact he was a modified human.

The Noblesse's eyes were glowing softly, and Takeo frowned, worried. He hoped that Raizel wasn't spending energy to do that.

Seeing Takeo looking at him, Raizel blinked and his eyes went back to normal.

Takeo hoped Raizel didn't think the glowing eyes had frightened him.

Then he realized that the room was much darker than he'd thought without that red light, as his eyes started to refocus into heat vision mode. He shook his head, refocusing on the small glints of red he could make out in the dim light: focusing on red colors was the best way to tell his brain that he wanted to be seeing red, not infrared.

He could still make out that Raizel was looking at him, and now Raizel's eyes were reflecting the light.

Mimicking Takeo's own?

It made Takeo's breath catch in his throat, but whatever he was feeling wasn't fear.

He knew that nobles were shapeshifters, the way he knew that they could drink people's blood and create vampires, but as a rule they didn't. All the nobles he'd met were very particular about their appearances and didn't change their look often. Raizel always wore Ye Ran's uniform – Takeo had never seen him wear anything else, except that time when he was wearing black clothing, which given what the clan leaders were wearing was probably his uniform when he lived on Lukedonia.

Frankenstein changed what outfit he wore daily, like normal people did. At least, he used to: these days, he was more often in a lab coat or a particular black formal suit of a design that seemed to have some history for him.

Most of the nobles always looked the same, down to wearing the same thing. Well, except for when Tao had dragged Regis out of his room wearing pajamas with stars on them once, and Regis had worn that bandana to disguise himself (badly, especially if nobles didn't have many children so there really couldn't be many people on Lukedonia Regis' height) and Tao was able to get him to wear the RK mask.

Tao had his own style.

Nobles just seemed to be very definite about how they wanted to look. They could look like anything, and instead they wanted to look exactly the same every day? There had to be a reason for it. Sometimes their eyes would glow – Takeo had seen a flash of bared fangs when Rael lost his temper – but for Raizel to just… so casually change to look more like Takeo? Mimic a capability normal humans didn't have, trying to make Takeo more comfortable?

Raizel probably had no idea why Takeo was staring at him and went with 'my actions are my actions and nothing to do with you (so there is no need to take it personally, or to feel responsible).'

Frankenstein's response to Takeo telling him that after he killed Frankenstein Raizel was next? It was starting to feel entirely understandable under the circumstances.

Takeo wondered if that should worry him. Being able to think like the archetypical mad scientist shouldn't be a good sign. Much less an improvement.

Better than thinking like the Union.

Takeo smiling to himself seemed to have reassured Raizel.

…Or maybe not, when the noble got up? Takeo didn't watch him go, he was probably just going to his room to change without mentioning that Takeo had trapped him there all night, keeping Raizel from studying, or…

Oh. Takeo relaxed when he heard the coffee machine. Maybe it was still early enough for Raizel to study. For all Takeo knew, the noble had a test today.

Raizel came back with a cup and saucer, but instead of sitting down in his usual seat at the head of the table, he sat down again next to Takeo.

And put the coffee in front of the enhanced human who had taken up so much of his time using him as a pillow?

"Frankenstein is not home," Raizel said, looking dignified when Takeo glanced at him. "He is free to relive the old days, so I will make the tea and coffee." He paused, as Takeo remembered how Raizel had gotten up to get his own tea while Frankenstein was playing around with Dr. Aris. "There is no need to tell him. It would disturb him."

…Now Takeo was right back to not understanding Frankenstein. Wasn't Frankenstein the one who put the note on the coffee machine to be sure Raizel would know how to use it, if he wanted something warm to fill his teacup while Frankenstein was out of the house?

Without looking at Takeo, Raizel said, "He does the small things for me both because it is his will and because he is unable to do many of the greater things for me."

Like execute clan leaders. Like save Tao and Takeo so Raizel didn't have to awaken them. So…

Oh. Yes. Takeo did understand why Frankenstein would get upset over Raizel having to get his own tea.

It wasn't about the tea.

He realized that Raizel didn't like being waited on. The Noblesse was still learning about modern technology and conventions, but he had Ikhan and Yuna in his group of friends. Even if it took him awhile to figure out how to do some things, no one would like being treated like they were incapable of taking care of themselves. Even if Raizel was sick.

Dying.

But Raizel couldn't give any indication that it bothered him when it was something Frankenstein did to make himself feel better, Takeo realized. Frankenstein's master wanted him to feel better, even just be distracted, more than he cared about his pride.

"Before I met Frankenstein, he made a great amount of noise in the human world. The humans were after his labs and his research, and he had to destroy his things, destroy his homes to keep the Union from getting them and using them to harm humans. Frankenstein is very particular about his things," Raizel said, still not looking at Takeo.

Takeo had seen how Frankenstein reacted to the damage to Ye Ran that happened when Yonsu punched M-21 through a wall.

"It bothers him more when his things are broken because of how often it happened when he was young."

"And the reason," Takeo realized. Any reminder of the Union was going to bother any of the enhanced humans in the house, and Frankenstein had Dark Spear.

Raizel nodded. "Before he came to my home, he was alone. The Union took anyone who knew him."

Takeo thought of the people Shark killed on Krans' orders. That was just to… those civilians didn't even know anything that could possibly endanger the Union's secrets! There were plenty of black ops groups out there, and Tao had researched how DA-5 could pass for one of them; it was a Union assignment to ensure their own secrecy!

The people Takeo saved knew nothing of any value or threat to the Union!

…so how many more people would the Union have killed for a snowball's chance in hell of getting even a page of Frankenstein's notes?

What would that have done, to the Frankenstein Takeo knew now? For everyone who, forget knew anything about him, anyone who came in contact with him to be taken unless he wiped their memories the way the nobles did these days for the same reason?

A scientist wouldn't have cared. When Takeo came to this house, he thought Frankenstein only cared about his master, perhaps because of mind control or strange noble reasons, and that was it. It couldn't be anything more than that. He couldn't be a caring person. He couldn't be the kind of person Takeo wanted to be, if only the Union had permitted it.

Raizel's hands were neatly folded in his lap, in lieu of a teacup to hold. He spoke quietly in the darkness. "For a human, the time Frankenstein spent alone felt much, much longer than the time I spent alone."

When Frankenstein took pity on Raizel for his solitude… was that why it affected him so much? Because of how much he was suffering, because he couldn't afford to be anything but alone. Or the Union would make those innocent people pay the price.

"When he came to Lukedonia, he did not care for nobles. He had no reason to worry that Ragar and Gejutel might be taken by the Union to use against him. They were nobles, and he despised nobles. They were not his friends, so he could be friends with them. Lukedonia was somewhere he could stay with people without endangering anyone."

Raizel wasn't looking at Takeo as he said this. He had grown more likely to speak over the past few months, maybe because of the children's influence, or growing more confident with them. For all Takeo knew, Raizel could be a chatterbox over his link with Frankenstein, or when the two of them were alone.

He was saying this, and it had to be for Takeo's ears, but he wasn't saying it at Takeo.

For humans, it was rude to talk as though people weren't there. It was acting like they were furniture. Things. Union experiments. But Raizel wasn't like that, and Takeo knew that nobles had their own ways of being courteous, just like different human cultures.

Maybe Raizel was acting as though he was saying this to himself because it was rude to say things about Frankenstein to someone else when he wasn't here? No, something about this was reminding Takeo of Miss Seira. Not Regis, but Regis was still technically a child and painfully straightforward for a noble.

"Urokai Agvain caused Frankenstein to lose his composure by showing him the necklace of a child Frankenstein taught. That person was the last time he'd dared care for someone. Except Dark Spear," Raizel acknowledged. "He could not abandon them."

And in exchange for that kindness they tortured him, but Takeo didn't think they could help it. Raizel wouldn't just let someone hurt Frankenstein, and neither of them seemed to hate or resent Dark Spear, only its creation…

Takeo remembered some of what Frankenstein had said about Dark Spear, to the Union Elders, and wondered just how much of it was joking. No, he thought, grimacing, he really didn't want to know.

"It is not good for a human to be alone. Caring for others helps him." Raizel paused. "I do not recommend distracting him by saying you want more sugar until you can remove the excess." The red eyes closed for a moment as Raizel let out a little sigh. "He keeps adjusting the sugar to what he thinks is my taste."

Takeo blinked, and in hindsight it was blindingly obvious that the majority of the requests that could be taken as orders (and were) he'd seen Raizel give Frankenstein were distractions. When Raizel was psychic, and could tell that something was bothering Frankenstein?

Why was Raizel telling Takeo a strategy he was obviously going to some trouble to keep secret from Frankenstein? Takeo would try, but he was certain that if Frankenstein wanted to get information out of him, he'd break Takeo like a building. Why was Raizel telling him all this? No, he wasn't telling Takeo it, not exactly. It was something he wanted Takeo to hear, to know about…

How to take care of Frankenstein.

What bothered him, and why. Things to try when something was running through his mind.

Like the memory of Raizel's death.

Raizel wouldn't tell Takeo 'don't let him be alone.' Wouldn't ask that of him, when that might mean that Takeo would see it as something he had to do, when Raizel and Frankenstein didn't want to be repaid for taking in any of them.

Frankenstein's master wanted Takeo, wanted someone to look after Frankenstein when Raizel was gone. To save him from being alone, the way Frankenstein had… Frankenstein and Raizel had saved each other, hadn't they?

"I understand," Takeo said, quietly. "I don't want him to be alone either." So this was something he wanted, something he would do of his own will. Raizel didn't have to worry that Takeo was taking it as an order or obligation.

The Noblesse turned to him, although his eyes were downcast and solemn. "Frankenstein… he worries me." He looked to the side. "The proper courtesies among humans say that I should say thank you, but that would imply that you did this for gratitude." And he did not wish to insult Takeo that way. "I appreciate that you care for him," was what Raizel said instead. "Humans used to fall asleep in the presence of nobles, trusting that we would protect them. If it is your wish to do that again, it would be…" Raizel paused.

Takeo smiled, but it was a little sad. "It's okay to want things. We also want to give you what you wish for."

"Umm… Hmm…" Raizel turned away, and Takeo's eyes could make out a blush even in this dim light, darkening as he watched. "Umm…" Faint little sounds, almost more hums than even attempts at words.

It looked as though he broke the noble, but in a good way. Takeo smiled and said, "Let me get you some coffee," to give Raizel a little room to compose himself. The Noblesse almost seemed naked without his cup of tea.

When he returned to the couch, Raizel said quietly, "No one but Frankenstein has ever wanted to grant my wishes before."

"The Union made sure that what I wanted never mattered. Then I came here, and M-21 asked if we could stay. I know that you're afraid you can't protect this place and make it one where we can have the peaceful lives we want anymore, but the fact that you care so much about even… those like us having the chance to find our own happiness… Of course we wish the same for you."

Raizel's near-suppressed blush deepened again, and he picked up his teacup with a motion that was almost hurried.

The most powerful being on the planet for who knew how many thousands of years, but instead of being harsh and cruel he was so cute and kind. It made Takeo smile to himself, glad to see it not only because he was glad he'd made Raizel happy, but also because the Union was so very, very wrong.

Maybe that was what would bring it down, in the end.

Eventually Raizel went up, and spent some time picking out his school uniform for the day. They looked like Ye Ran's standard, mass-produced uniforms to the untrained eye, but Takeo's vision could pick out the variety of fabrics, all of them extremely high-quality, and the small variations in cut and stitching.

A little after everyone had come down for breakfast, Raizel paused, frowned, and finally let out a little sigh. When he looked up again, seeing their questioning looks, he said, "Frankenstein opened our bond and flooded my mind with maniacal laughter."

They all stared, partially because yes, that sounded like something he would do.

"He worries me," Raizel said with fondness as much as concern, and drank his tea.