The puppy ran to the door when the kids got home, so they saw it as soon as Seira opened the door.
"A puppy?" Yuna was enchanted.
"You got a dog, Rai?" Shinwoo asked him.
Rai nodded as the puppy danced around them, sniffing everyone with its tail wagging madly.
"What's its name?" Ikhan asked. "Is it a boy or a girl?"
Name? Rai frowned thoughtfully.
"He's a boy!" Tao piped up helpfully. "We haven't decided on a name yet."
So instead of a board game the afternoon's diversion became brainstorming up names for the puppy as they played with it. They didn't come to a conclusion, but no one minded that nothing had been accomplished. Besides having fun with their friends and the new dog, which maybe was the point. Tao loved that he wasn't the only one who thought brainstorming was fun anymore.
"I'm leaning towards Coco, what do you think?" he asked Takeo when the kids had left, scratching Coco behind the ears as the puppy's tail thumped on his lap.
"Because he's brown and furry, and I suppose he is round when he curls up on someone's lap?" Takeo smiled, nodding. "It seems like a good name."
"Why don't I try it out by sewing it onto his security dog harness?" Tao asked. "We can see if the kids at school think it's a good name for him."
M-21 had seemed a little diffident about the puppy understanding him at first, but he took it seriously when Tao asked him to buckle the puppy into the harness and instruct it in how to be a good security dog so Coco wouldn't embarrass himself tomorrow and could keep coming to school with everyone. M-21 even stuck to the street level when he went out on patrol so he could take the puppy with him.
"A trial run? Good idea, M-21!"
"You're supposed to take dogs for walks, right?" M-21 shrugged, standing there with the leash and Coco tucked in next to his right foot, wagging his tail madly.
In the morning Tao grabbed the leash first, so he got to buckle the puppy into his harness and be the one to walk him to school. "He's heeling, good job M-21!"
M-21 didn't say anything but his face colored a little – M-21 wasn't used to thanks or compliments, so Tao tried to give them to him. He and Takeo weren't either, it was still always a nice surprise when Boss thought they'd done a good job or something. It was nice to be appreciated instead of taken for granted.
It was a nice day, for that matter – sunny under a blue sky, walking to school a little earlier than most of the kids did so they would have time to get to school and show the puppy around before there were a lot of people there. The puppy's head swung back and forth maybe even a tenth as much as his tail did, but he stayed obediently next to Tao and Tao was glad he'd packed his pocket full of dog treats so he could give the puppy one when they got to school. "Who's a good boy!" he crowed. "Good job Coco, isn't he cute, taking his job as a security dog so seriously?" he asked Takeo and M-21.
M-21 frowned at him. "It's our job."
Tao gasped. "That makes him a coworker!" Like the other members of the security department, who were retired from the military. He knew they looked down on him and the others for not having the background for the job, and only getting hired because they were connected to the chairman, but they'd been really nice, inviting them to a social and exercising with them once out on the track field and some other activities.
M-21 was right though, being school security was something to take seriously. Tao did take it seriously, just like M-21 did, how it was their job to keep the kids and the school safe. Boss trusted them with this place, and Tao had done his best to disaster-proof it and build in shelters for the kids to take refuge in and patrol for bullies. The strong taking advantage of the weak was normal in the Union, but Ye Ran's students shouldn't have to experience anything at all like the Union, ever.
"Let's all protect the kids together, Coco!" Tao told the puppy.
"This is the place we're going to protect," M-21 said, looking at the puppy seriously. "First let's patrol the grounds."
So they walked around the edge of the school, ending up back at the school gate and taking up positions inside and to the side so they weren't in the way, where they waited most days to greet the students. The puppy sat down between Tao's feet, tongue hanging out.
"I'll get a bowl with some water," Takeo said and took off, long strides heading for the cafeteria.
"That's something to bring tomorrow, a water bowl for the puppy." The cafeteria's bowls were for the students to eat out of.
M-21 nodded, looking out the gate at the first approaching students.
"Good morning!" Tao waved hello to them, grinning.
"Good morning," he heard back, one tired voice – that student yawned, which was cute – but mostly cheerful.
"Aww, who's the puppy?" a girl asked, taking out her phone to snap some pictures.
"He's our trainee security dog!" Tao told her. "We're thinking of calling him Coco, but we're open to suggestions."
"Maybe Brownie?" she suggested fearlessly, giving her opinion without worrying about expressing it to strong people and how that might be a little dangerous, entirely focused on typing into her phone. Letting her friends know about the dog?
"Maybe," Tao said as she walked past, hurrying to the locker room.
That reminded Tao – dogs needed licenses, didn't they, and security dogs might need extra licenses and paperwork. He got out his own phone and got to work on that, researching and doing as much as he could without the name being finalized as more students started to trickle in and Takeo got back with the water bowl.
Coco lapped at the water gratefully, Takeo smiling down at him and putting the bowl off to the side by the wall, out of the way when the puppy was done. More pictures were snapped of the puppy drinking, and it wasn't long before someone said, "He's even cuter in person!" and Tao knew that the photos were making the rounds, the students sharing them with their friends.
The puppy didn't bark at any of the students, not even happily. The head of security even gave Coco a grudging nod when he got in, saying, "He seems well-trained."
"It's thanks to M-21," Tao explained. "Have a good day, sir!"
"Keep up the good work," he told them, heading for the morning staff meeting.
There were some students out on the grounds and playing fields, taking advantage of the cool morning to exercise and practice for their sports, but the trickle coming in through the gate slowed to nothing after ten minutes and Takeo suggested taking the puppy through the halls.
Tao gave their new coworker a guided tour of the school, ending in the Principal's office. Boss wasn't there since the morning staff meeting was today, but they got themselves quick cups of tea and gave the puppy another treat before heading back to the gate, because after the tea it was time for the morning rush of students coming to class to begin.
"Can we say hello to the dog?" some students coming in extra early asked.
"Sorry, he's working," Tao said with an apologetic smile, because he bet they'd gotten photos from their friends and come in a little early just to see the puppy.
"Aww," they said, but didn't argue, just taking some photos and heading in to meet up with whatever friends had sent them photos earlier.
"A puppy?" They heard Suyi before they saw her, because crowds had started coming in and it took a minute before she made her way towards them. "So his name's Coco," she said, reading it off the puppy's little harness/jacket. "Is he staying at the Chairman's?" she asked them.
"Yup," Tao agreed. "Shinwoo and the others met him yesterday."
"I haven't had a chance to look through their messages," she said apologetically, opening up her phone. "I'm not going to be able to come over today either, I've got a shoot."
"I'm glad to hear your work's going well too, Miss Suyi," Takeo said.
"Thank you," she said, and turned to line up a selfie with the puppy and Tao, Takeo and M-21 also in the shot. "Do you mind if this goes up on my blog?" she asked them.
"Not at all," Takeo told her as M-21 shook his head.
"Thanks," she said, and with a glance at the students around her she hurried to class so that some others could come forward and get a photo of the dog when Tao told them that they couldn't introduce themselves to the puppy, the puppy was working, but they were allowed to take photos.
The rest of the kids came like five minutes before the bell, with Regis, Miss Seira and him. The nobles all exchanged regal nods with the puppy, while Shinwoo asked, "How's he doing?"
"Great!" Tao said.
"He's doing a good job," Takeo agreed. "He hasn't pulled on the leash at all."
Shinwoo whistled as Yuna said, "What a good dog!"
"Shinwoo's martial arts school has an event after school today," Ikhan said.
"Right," Shinwoo remembered. "I won't be able to hang out today," he told Seira apologetically.
Miss Seira shook her head: there was no need to apologize.
"Can we hang out, Hyung?" Ikhan asked Tao.
Tao grinned. "Sure!" He loved hanging out with his little bro!
"How did it go?" Boss asked them when they came in to report during his PE period. He, Regis and Seira were already in Boss office with tea: Boss was standing next to him instead of working on his paperwork, so it must be relatively light today. That was good, Boss was in a better mood when there was less paperwork to do.
"Great! M-21 explained to him how a security dog should behave, and he was perfect all morning. Weren't you Coco? Who's a good boy?" Tao crouched down to give the puppy another treat.
"Good thinking, M-21."
M-21 shrugged but accepted the compliment.
"I've received an inquiry from the head of security about training him to detect cigarettes and other contraband."
"We'll get right on that after school," Tao promised. Or M-21 would, since Tao was going to hang out with Ikhan.
"Good. I don't want my students smoking that filth. Not when I can't enhance their lungs." There was a shadow in Boss' eyes for a moment.
Boss cared about his students, enough he wished he could enhance them not to build an army but just so that they stayed healthy and didn't die?
That was another reason to protect the school, for Boss' sake.
"You're buying cigarettes, Ajussi?" Shinwoo was the one to ask, looking a bit doubtful and surprised both because they were staying at the Chairman's and he wouldn't want the smell of smoke on things and because he knew that M-21 was enhanced, so would drugs like that work on him?
Before Frankenstein, they probably would have: it wasn't like the Union wanted its agents to develop immunities to the drugs it used on them. It wasn't rare for low-level agents to take refuge in street drugs and be killed when the Union discovered that even its rejects were doing something so weak. That was why M-21 and M-24 had done nothing of the sort: they had to live, to find those names.
"They're to train the dog," he told them, taking the bag from the clerk.
Blinking, he took the bag Raizel handed him.
"These are also for the puppy," Raizel explained.
"Rai, I don't think you should give the dog ramyeon." Yuna looked concerned. "There are human foods that are bad for dogs, and I know that garlic is one of them." So no kimchi, which frequently went in ramyeon.
Raizel looked horrified for a split second. No ramyeon? A new member of the family, and the poor thing couldn't enjoy ramyeon?
"I bet someone could cook up a pup-friendly ramyeon," Tao hurried to say, "but maybe not the packaged brands, Yuna's right."
"That's a relief, huh Rai." Shinwoo nudged him in the shoulder with a fist, and Rai nodded, taking back the bag of different kinds of instant ramyeon from M-21. "I'd better get going, though."
"See you later, Shinwoo!" Ikhan said.
"I'll walk you home," M-21 told Yuna.
"Thank you," Yuna said, blushing faintly enough it took enhanced eyesight to catch it. M-21 didn't ask, but resolved to walk Yuna home more often when she wasn't hanging out at their place. He didn't want one of the kids to be all touched by the fact that someone wanted them to be okay, and with the Union still out there M-24 would want him to keep an eye on the kids.
When Ikhan followed him upstairs Tao dashed into his room to clear off enough space for Ikhan to sit – and be sure that anything related to the Union was closed down or out of sight. Fortunately his last project was making the harness for the puppy, nothing classified.
"Can I come in?" Ikhan asked from the other side of the door.
"One minute!" He needed to be sure the needles were back in their box properly, and he swept scraps of fabric off the bed into his hand and dumped them in the waste basket, keeping himself to only human speed because Ikhan was right there and might hear him. "Alright, there's room!"
Ikhan came in once Tao opened the door and sat down on the bed, putting down his laptop and handing Tao the cord to plug into the power strip opposite the one he used for his rig – not that there was any risk of shorting out the power in Frankenstein's house.
He sat down in his chair and spun it around to look at Ikhan. "What do you want to do today, little bro?"
"We can't improve the security of the police database anymore because I don't have authorization to work on the databases that link to it." Ikhan frowned.
Computer security was only as good as the weakest link. Tao had improved the KSA's security a little, passing tips on through Takeo, but he couldn't make it too good or someone might realize a Union hacker was responsible.
"We could just hang out and work on our own projects?" Tao suggested, because he liked hanging out with Ikhan and also because he had some contract work to do because Frankenstein had rearranged when he got paid so he wasn't getting the check till next week. He wasn't out of money yet, but he'd spent a bit making the harness up to standard.
Ikhan pushed his glasses up and smiled. "That sounds fun. Would you mind if Regis hung out with us?"
"Sure!" The more the merrier. Tao got up to go get Regis.
The young noble was sitting in the living room by Raizel, ignoring Rael and working on his homework. "Hey, Regis. Ikhan wants us to hang out in my room and work on stuff," Tao told him, and the noble nodded and got up, gathering his papers and books.
Tao ran up the stairs ahead of him, realizing he needed to make more room on the bed.
Regis came in when Tao was halfway done making room, put his things down in the clear space, said, "I'll get us coffee," and went out again.
Aww, he was such a nice kid! "I'll go help him carry it up," Tao told Ikhan once he was satisfied there was enough room for a small noble to sit elegantly and study – Regis was a handy size – and went downstairs, leaving Ikhan in the room alone even though Tao was signed into his rig.
It made him feel warm that he could trust Ikhan. There wasn't anyone in this house he wouldn't trust to leave his things alone, even Rael. He didn't need to worry about any of them destroying his rig because they got bored, or to put him in his place, or just for the hell of it when Tao was too weak to say anything about it. None of them wanted to spy on him, even the member of Lukedonia's spy clan. He could do whatever he wanted and they wouldn't care as long as he was safe and happy.
Regis held out a coffee cup to him as soon as he walked into the kitchen. "Would you please take Ikhan's cup up to him?" he asked, instead of ordering which he could have done, Tao was much weaker than Regis.
But the suggestion that he could order Tao around, or could force Tao to do whatever Regis wanted, would have gotten that 'are you insane because that's just messed up' expression from Regis, and it was because he didn't have to – and because it was for Ikhan – that Tao did what Regis wanted and took the cup from him, going back up the stairs to his room, the room that was his, that no one went inside without his permission, to give the cup to his guest.
The person he had in his space because Tao wanted him there, wanted to keep him, and Ikhan wanted to be company for Tao, wanted to learn from him and admired Tao's skills even though it wasn't fighting. He had no idea how good a fighter Tao was and didn't care!
That reminded Tao that Ikhan wasn't a fighter at all, and Tao didn't just respect Ikhan anyway but he wanted to keep him that way.
His little bro was smart, and they were in a world where that mattered, where… some bully could still smash Ikhan's head open, but they'd have to get past Tao to do it. It was literally Tao's job to protect Ikhan. He could protect him, could keep him safe, instead of being too weak to even protect himself. He had allies, and a rig that could let him be certain that the surroundings were safe for Ikhan to walk home, and it bubbled up inside him how much he loved this place.
Ikhan was like him, and that didn't mean weak or looked down on. Shinwoo protected him, the way Tao had him and Boss and M-21 and Takeo to protect him now. Neither of them were alone. Tao had lots of family now, but Ikhan was still the best little bro.
And no one was kidnapping Ikhan to experiment on him. Not now, not ever. Because Tao did have something to say about it.
Regis came up and handed Tao a cup of coffee, the little noble clan heir doing something for the weakest experiment in DA-5, and Tao said, "Thanks!" and turned back to his computer to do the programming that had nothing to do with fighting, just having enough money that Tao could do whatever he wanted.
What he wanted, not what someone else made him do, because they were strong and he was weak. He wanted Tao to be happy, to have a soul weapon, to be able to protect everyone if that was what Tao wanted and yes. He did want that. He wanted to protect the family he had here. To hear the rapid clicking of Ikhan's keys and the barely-there sound of Regis' pen elegantly sliding over the paper as he did his literature homework. Proof that they were alive, were here with him, were happy doing what they wanted to do.
"I brought the police manual on working with different security systems for you, Regis," Ikhan said.
"Thank you," said the polite little noble.
"What did you want it for?"
"Tao doesn't go on break often enough. If I can 'spell' him at the system, then he might take a nap when he needs it," Regis said, glancing at the back of Tao's head disapprovingly.
Really, Tao didn't need all the sleep Boss said they should get! It was nice, but he could function without sleep for days!
But aww, Regis wanted him to rest up and be healthy! "I could teach you how to work the system, Regis," Tao told him.
"Would you?" Regis nodded. "Thank you. Perhaps later tonight." Homework came first.
"Do you still want the book, Regis?" Ikhan asked.
"…Yes." Regis thought so. "Thank you, Ikhan."
Tao heard the sound of Ikhan passing Regis the book and nodded. Regis would study it, because he wouldn't want to wake Tao up if he had a question about how to work something, and Tao's rig interfaced with a lot of people's different security systems across the city, so Regis would need to learn how to work those, too.
For his sake, a noble clan heir was willing to do that.
Tao had the best family.