Part of why this AU became a multi-chapter thing instead of a single scenario is that even though the Trio definitely cares about the people who have taken them in, it's like they really haven't dared to try to get closer to them, even though Franken wants to encourage them to ask questions and Rai would like to be asked to do things for them etc. It's probably for the same reason Rai hasn't managed to get across the message that he'd really rather be called Rai to anyone but the school kids – they all have limited social skills, them from the labs and Rai from the manor. It's natural to be nervous about messing up something important to you.

Well, Tao has the social fu, but the ability to manipulate enemies for the sake of survival is not the same thing as positive relationships. It's interesting that he recreates a non-evil DA-5 in RK, since that's the group dynamic he's used to dealing with.

Tao was the first one home, but even so he still took off his shoes and put on house slippers before running up to his room. Sure, he was about to risk his life, but there were limits! He was the tactician, he wasn't going to make his odds worse.

Buried in among the equipment in his room was a tiny freezer.

M-21 had tried to get something past Boss: not happening.

In the Union, you needed to be tricky to survive, but Boss and Boss' master were honest people. Who cared about what he wanted. So he was going to make it clear that he knew exactly what he wanted.

The Boss was still in his office when Tao got back to the school - Tao had known he would be, when the meeting with the KSA in the morning ate up the time Boss had planned to do his paperwork before staff meetings and appointments with visitors began.

Blue eyes didn't look up at him from behind cosmetic reading glasses – some of Boss' glasses corrected his vision down to normal, while the ones he sometimes wore in the lab had one lens that practically worked like a microscope – which meant he really was trying to power through that pile of paperwork. Normally, the Chairman of Ye Ran was as good at pretending that he couldn't sense who people were without looking at them (when he was 'looking,' anyway) as he was at hiding that the foreigner known for his compassion for students' woes and his donations to charity could kill everyone in this school in… maybe more than a minute? Tao spent a lot of the school's money on those shelters and upgrades, it'd be embarrassing if it didn't make any difference at all!

He threw what he had in his hand down on the desk. Frankenstein's pen stilled as he watched it roll onto the PE department budget proposal he was correcting, mainly upwards. He cared about the health of his students.

He cared about their health, and that was why Tao wasn't going to back down the way M-21 had.

"I've always done whatever I had to do, been whoever I had to be, in order to survive," Tao confessed, standing there in the Chairman's office, vial lying there on the desk between them. "I liked Takeo because with him, I didn't need to be evil to be the kind of person he would want to keep around, and with Ikhan… I could be a fun person, not meaning anyone any harm. You, and him, you're terrifyingly powerful. So I had to be whatever person you would want me to be, whatever kind of person you would like."

Frankenstein nodded sadly. "I've seen children raised in the power of monsters before, Tao. You aren't doing anything strange or wrong. You lived. That is what is important. Of course you're afraid. You lived in terror for years, and the organization that hurt you is still out there. Still wants to destroy you. Of course you're having a hard time discarding the shield that protected you. Especially now that you have people you want to protect."

Tao looked down at his clenched fists on Frankenstein's desk, shoulders hunched over, and laughed nervously. "You say things like that, you're people like, like the two of you are, and it makes you even scarier, you know? Because I want to think it's safe, I want to come out from behind, behind the mask. The shield?" Both were right, weren't they. "But then, what if I get hurt. What if you hurt me? I think I'd die." He raised a hand to wipe at his face. "Like Takeo wanted to die after Dr. Aris, huh. M-21 would want to punch me if he was here, giving up surviving for so little…" It was hard not to laugh again, to try to hide behind that but he didn't know if he'd stop.

"Your social skills, your masks, are a skill, Tao. Just like your hacking skills, and Takeo's aim. How you use that skill is up to you. And you used it to pack ramyeon so Master had something of home in the place where he was alone for so long." Frankenstein smiled gently. "I told him about your Raizel Knights and he blushed, Tao. The Noblesse blushed and made little noises. It was adorable."

Hearing that was a shock of… not of cold water. Still enough to make the rising hysteria vanish. Really? Had he really managed to make him feel so much, care so much about Tao did that it broke a noble's, that noble's composure? Did he deserve that reaction, though? "I just wanted to make you like me," Tao said quietly.

"So?" Frankenstein wondered. "An amazing percentage of all human effort is dedicated to making other people happy with us. It's natural to want to be loved. M-21 had the rest of the M-series, who wanted him to live. Takeo thought he had a sister who loved him. You had Takeo… some of the time, because you couldn't afford to be the kind of person Takeo would like when the others were around. Takeo's ability to kill let him afford to be soft: you were designed as support, so without someone to back you up… And Takeo had to put his sister first. You knew he couldn't put himself on the line for you. Humans need other people to survive and be happy. It is not good for us to be alone among enemies. You are a child and you want to live."

"I want you to drink it. If you don't, I'll ask him." Tao cringed, because that was unfair, that was an ultimatum, putting him on the line was going to end in Dark Spear crackling around him.

Yet the menacing aura didn't come, only a measuring gaze. No, not measuring. Already measured. "You want to be known. You want to be found worthy. You want to be loved for who you are, and if that will never happen, then you want the pain to stop. You want to stop having to pretend to be vicious, dangerous. You want to be safe. To be secure. To know that you have the loving family every child should be entitled to have."

Boss was a thousand years old, and from those eyes, Tao wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, in way too many kids. It still pissed him off, and Tao could see him suppress that anger (anger for him instead of at him!) so he could continue to speak calmingly instead of flipping into scary mode and maybe scaring Tao.

Frankenstein sighed. "In your case, I'm… considering options."

Tao jerked his head up, staring at him in hope.

"At least inquiring of Seira how exactly the bond she has with Regis functions. Even if Gejutel is worried for them, I can't see him telling children how to set up anything permanent or intrusive."

If Gejutel thought it was okay for children, then maybe Boss might decide it was safe enough for Tao?

"But if it is possible for a temporary, non-mind-control-based bond between two noble children to function for humans, then if you want that bond with me I'll have to do it for M-21 and Takeo, and that's four times the risk someone will drain Master's power, and if that happens, how do you think you will feel?" Frankenstein asked him. "Then there's adding an energy channel – which will have a certain error rate, I am not a noble – into your body's ongoing stabilization process."

When that meant it would slow down how fast even Boss could safely make him stronger, and Tao was already the weakest.

Normally contracts were supposed to make humans stronger, but after Raizel had already awakened him? Tao couldn't drain any more of his lifeforce, he just couldn't.

Tao wasn't going to treat him as something to use up, the way the Union treated him. Dr. Aris hadn't exactly cared about Tao's lifespan. Frankenstein hadn't even finished getting all the damage from the modifications and taking those pills tidied away without letting them lose any power while he switched them over to ways of having the same powers that didn't slowly kill them when Tao asked for more enhancements on top of that. Each change meant a new baseline needed to stabilize, or stabilize enough, before additional changes could be made. The Union, when Tao was made, couldn't modify people more than once, because once modified they weren't baseline humans anymore. Most of the Union's experiments fell apart, too. Constantly watching over them and making adjustments the way Frankenstein did, making sure they didn't fall apart?

The Union's modifications were science fiction to civilians, and they were trial and error. What Frankenstein could do knowing the theory? It wasn't that he was careless. He took meticulous measurements when he was experimenting with cooking, he wasn't going to be the kind of chef that just tossed things in a pot dealing with people, but Tao bet he totally could whip something up in a cauldron if he wanted to. It wasn't like they had this kind of lab equipment back when Boss was modifying himself, right?

If the Union could turn Elders into praying mantises or whatever, there was no way Boss couldn't turn someone into a human-sized frog if they annoyed him enough.

How was Tao supposed to coordinate tactics and use his equipment from a lily pond?

"If a bond between two nobles won't function for humans, a contract is not something that can be revoked. It takes a noble's power, or borrowed power, to link our souls, but once they are linked even… even Master's death would not sever us. Once the Union is finally destroyed and I've settled any remaining affairs, my soul is promised to Dark Spear. While Dark Spear isn't able to affect Master, you are vulnerable to it. If we are contracted, when it takes me it will obtain a piece of your soul, and it will not stop trying to consume the rest of you."

That made Tao gasp.

Not that part about if he outlived Frankenstein, because how likely was that to happen, but was Boss really going to let Dark Spear eat him? In exchange for using it? Or trying to make it be less scary or something?

Something else for the list of things Tao needed to find some way to stop being powerless to stop.

"If we make a contract, you will be hurt," Frankenstein told him.

"I don't care," Tao said without even thinking about it. He was leaning forward over the desk now, searching for some sign of Dark Spear not as a warning he needed to run for it but was Boss okay?

"I see why you don't, when you're hurting this much already. But, you see," he said, and smiled. "I refuse to be a reason you suffer. If allowing you to suffer was acceptable to me, you would not be here trying to force your blood on me, or at least I damn well hope you wouldn't."

Tao hesitated. He wanted to say that he was desperate enough to do it anyway, to make a contract with someone who might treat him like the Union did just so the boss would be worried enough to resort to desperate measures, but… "No. It's because… It's why you gave him your blood, isn't it? I can… I can trust you to think about what's best for me. That's why I don't want you to be able to leave. When he told all of us to leave, before you explained that it was because he was afraid he couldn't protect us and wanted us to be safe even if it meant he was alone, it…" It had hurt. "I don't trust myself, but I trust you."

He wanted to argue that this would make him stronger, so he could protect Boss and Boss' Master, but he understood about how the main issue was his stability, his body being able to handle the strain so it didn't fall apart like his. If a Contract would be a source of instability? He couldn't protect them if he screwed up and dropped dead like Dr. Aris when she ate that pill.

Watching him, the boss sighed. "You're my employee. When we get home, sit down next to Master and I'll walk him through giving you a hug."

Tao jerked his head up to stare at Frankenstein again. Really?

It seemed to come out of nowhere. Like, aside from knocking people to the ground and standing on them, or showing Tao how to insert IV needles so he could do it for himself and Takeo instead of having a scientist do things to them, or actual surgery, Boss didn't touch people. Tao had figured he didn't like it, and according to his research that could fit with how he hated it when things were filthy. Raizel was more likely to touch Frankenstein than Frankenstein was to touch Raizel, and Raizel was a noble. Frankenstein's Master only touched him when Frankenstein was very upset and the situation called for drastic measures.

That smile actually reached Boss' blue eyes, so yes, really. "I am… working on it, but I discovered the existence of germs during a trying time in my life. Master restricts himself to patting me on the shoulder because when I'm already strained, it can be harder for me to restrain obsessive thoughts. Go to Master when you want a hug. He will be very happy to have something he can do to help you." Frankenstein gave him a warning frown. "Be sure you are wearing clean clothes and wash your hands, however. I'm aware that secondary infections can't happen to nobles, but he is weak, in humans that makes them vulnerable and he is dear to me. That's why it's hard to keep the need to have a clean environment for him under control."

Tao nodded. Hearing and obeying an order was an easy mode to fall back on, but the Noblesse hugging him?

Was that… really going to happen? And the boss would help make it happen?

Frankenstein smiled. "As your employer, it is improper for me to initiate physical contact under any circumstances. However, there is no one here, and Master and I will respect your will."

Tao was over on his side of the desk in a flash. He'd just been told that Frankenstein had a problem with hugs, but here he was pressing his face against the man's neck anyway, like he was the vampire. He should pull back and ask if that was okay, but he didn't want to.

He felt glee, that he was actually getting to do this! And it was okay, or at least Frankenstein was okay with doing this for him, since an arm wrapped around his back and Frankenstein attempted to settle Tao comfortably against his side but the chair wasn't really made for that. "Let's sit down on the couch," his boss told him when Tao showed no signs of letting go. It wasn't like Tao cared if his spine spent awhile being scrunched.

Still, it was an improvement. He got to sit half on Frankenstein's lap, with his head tucked under his chin somehow. One arm wrapped around his back, and the other one was for awhile too before it reached up to start going through Tao's hair.

Normally, he didn't like not having anything to do. It meant he thought about things, and that wasn't a very nice thing to do when he worked for the Union. He had to think about his situation to survive, but it wasn't something to dwell on or he'd just give up inside, like he'd seen others do, and then they were terminated. Had to stay busy. Had to prove to the Union that they wanted to keep him around.

These days, his mind went to worrying about the household. What if he messed up, what if he lost this?

"Thank you for coming to me with this instead of Master, Tao," Frankenstein told him. "You did the right thing."

"Seems kind of silly, I mean, I know… He would say yes, right?" Tao wondered. So why had he gone to the person who had told M-21 no?

"Yes," Frankenstein agreed. "He would give you what you wanted no matter the cost to himself, and blame himself if it made you sad. He can't say no to you. He loves you too dearly. And before you say that he only loves the mask you've cultivated, Master is the Noblesse. He is made to see people's true souls, and he is certain of yours."

They were just such ridiculously wonderful people that the part of him that calculated survival, that saw everything as assets, freaked out every time it looked at them. It wasn't just 'don't offend them or you'll die,' it was 'hold on to these for dear life.' Like he was used to making do with paperclips and bits of string and suddenly a supercomputer.

Awe. And 'Mine!' He couldn't risk them getting away!

They'd given him enough power to eat Shark for breakfast. With the power they'd given him, he would have had to be so much less afraid back when he was in the Union… But no. He'd have to be even more afraid. Because they'd want these modifications, want Boss' work. They wanted the shiny things he'd found. They wanted to take these people away from him.

He couldn't let them! Not when he had someone with the power of an Elder who was willing to just sit here and hold him so he'd feel better. Even after he'd tried to take Boss' Master hostage, what had he been thinking. He was lucky Dark Spear wasn't eating him!

It wasn't, because they were… nice.

"It's like unicorns," he said, randomly, so Boss wouldn't worry. Saying whatever he wanted to say without having to care about what other people might think: that was the Tao he'd become here, instead of the one who had to use words like knives to fend Shark off, because otherwise the real knives would come out.

"Oh? What about the Landegre?" Boss wondered, fingers rubbing his head in locations and with a pattern that seemed to have some purpose to it. Something for getting rid of headaches? Felt nice.

Tao almost went bolt upright with glee, but that would have meant leaving the hug. "Regis is a unicorn?"

Boss hummed. "Quite possibly – they are shapeshifters, and they must have looked like something before they took on human form. The unicorn, or possibly karkadann, is the Landegre clan's symbol."

Oh wow this was going to be fun. What was Rael's clan symbol, then…

Fun.

That was what they'd wanted from him, wasn't it? For him to get to play around. Not pretending to be harmless, but getting to do what he wanted. What made him happy. Like someone who didn't have to be deadly serious, because there were other people to be deadly serious for him.

Like unicorns, he'd thought good people like this didn't really exist. Then he'd found some, and other people wanted to kill them for, for things that weren't anywhere near as valuable as what they were worth to Tao alive.

Huh, he realized, pressed against Boss' chest. Frankenstein's heartbeat was really, really slow. Enhanced humans' were slower than normal humans', but not this slow. Like how enhanced humans needed less sleep, but too much less and their bodies broke down, while Boss went into his bedroom for like a half-hour and definitely didn't suffer any cognitive impairment. If he even spent that entire half-hour sleeping, since there was probably getting ready for bed and post-waking up rituals in there.

He was being pressed against a warm body protectively. There was an arm wrapped around him that could wave buildings off the map. He…

…was…

..safe?

No, no, he was only safe as long as nothing happened to them, he couldn't let anything happen to them, and it made him shudder. "We weren't lying," he said, and had to swallow. "I wasn't lying when I asked him not to save us. It's not just Takeo. I, I would have died too, instead of letting him use up his life just to save us. I don't… I don't want to go back to being alive when you aren't with me. I don't want…"

"You don't want to be alone. You don't want to lose your parents," Frankenstein said, although he waited awhile after Tao's voice failed him before speaking. "Do you want to cry?"

Tao laughed nervously. "No way! Why would I want to cry?" That was blood in the water, wasn't it? That was a death sentence. Anyone who did that was going to vanish before very long.

Wait.

Parents?

"Because you finally have someone who will listen, and care. You have people who will guard your back while you cry. You are allowed to be weak, and need help, and you will be given help."

Instead of terminated for being weak and useless. If Tao's enhancements were a failure, they'd need to get rid of him, start on another test subject. The Union couldn't, wouldn't help him. If he needed help, that was the end of him.

Raizel would help Tao even if it killed him.

He… he had people like this? They were real? They were… this was what it was like to have parents?

"It doesn't bother me to be cried on," Frankenstein told him. "It's rather like being bled on while I'm trying to staunch a wound. Someone in pain concentrates the mind wonderfully. I have an overactive need to fix things. I don't like things that are out of place. Crumbs on my furniture. Children in agony."

"I need to do something," he said, tugging on Boss' shirt. "So you'll keep me around." He said things like that, so Tao needed Boss to be happy with him. To love him. Need him, anything that would reduce the risk that he'd lose this.

Even if they'd let themselves be taken away from him over their dead bodies.

Especially because of that.

"No," Frankenstein told him, "you don't. However, if it would make you feel better, more secure, I don't think anyone would complain if you managed to reduce Master to blushing and tiny inarticulate noises again. It was adorable… and I think it would help you, to understand how happy you've made us."

Because when Boss' Master was happy, Boss was happy. Like if they were happy with him, Tao would be happy? "Right!" he chirped, snuggling against him. "Leave it to me!" He could feel the plotting wheels engaging again, not desperate like they were before but with something wonderful to think about, a prize he really really wanted and might actually have and no one looking over his shoulder to terminate him if he wasn't good enough, or even because the model waiting in the wings was better.

If Boss didn't like having lots of kids around to look after, he wouldn't run schools. Tao was still special, because he got to live with him, and after more than eight hundred years Boss had started enhancing people again just to help him and the others get stronger.

Right, though. He did have to get stronger, but that could… he'd have to keep thinking about that, if Boss giving him a Contract wasn't the answer.

It was okay to think about something else for now though, right? To give Boss a squeeze, and say something enthusiastic and ridiculous, and run off leaving him smiling?

Was it really… Yes, that really was all they wanted, scientist and noble or not.

So he was going to be the best at it ever.

Frankenstein got another cup of coffee, sat back down and sighed, before thinking better of it and going in search of decaf. Caffeine wouldn't be helpful right now, no. "Thank goodness I have all that practice letting people down gently." Oh, that reminded him. Awhile ago he was going to give Shinwoo some advice on how to stop breaking the hearts of all those people who fell for him when the boy ran off suddenly. He should probably get around to that before there was another incident like that with both halves of the couple from that other school. Or not. Mr. Park deserved some entertainment as compensation for Shinwoo always being late on his gate duty days. He had offered to help the young man…

Hmm. Now all of the children had come to him for The Talk except Takeo, come to think of it. He would probably have to initiate the conversation with Takeo himself. Takeo was too practiced hiding from his own thoughts and needs by putting someone else first, beginning with that 'little sister.'

For the others to have their concerns addressed while he was left out, even if it was by his own choice, would just feed that mindset. And it fed far too neatly into what the sniper had internalized of the Union's opinion that Takeo, and his own needs and wishes, were worthless.

Interesting how, out of all the things Frankenstein had been doing for the past eight hundred years, it was the wistful thinking, self-indulgent almost-hobby of 'if I do find him, what will we do then? How will I make him happy and keep him distracted so he doesn't spend his life while I finally get around to investigating the traitors and Union again and gradually assassinating them?' and founding schools that was serving him in such good stead.

Shinwoo goes to Frankenstein (and a bunch of other people) for advice on how to attract girls and Frankenstein assumes he needs advice on dealing with all the people who have fallen for him.

The couple from the other school is from the Noblesse S web novel content, the partial summary/translation on the egscans forums. When last we saw them, the boy was kind of stunned by Shinwoo being awesome. Until/unless there are further translations, I'm going to assume his girlfriend just goes 'I know, right?'