This one is an early draft of Franken talking about his past with Seira. The rewritten scene has M-21 instead of Seira.
(I made the change because I thought I really needed to address Franken pushing M-21 away from that fight in chap 14-Relapse, and M-21 can relate better to Franken. The M-21 and Tesamu parallel turned out to be very good too. The boys who Franken took in - how similar they were - and then how different. But M-21 was so intense and Seira kept things calm for a break after all this drama.) Thanks to Laryna6 for helping me pick the M-21 version.
Seira Speaks
"Chairman Lee?"
Frankenstein looked up from leaning on the veranda railing. "Miss Seira? How may I help you?" He turned around, smiling softly, and was hit by her eyes again. He should have been used to it by now, but somehow, the red against the grey of his world was something he couldn't pull his attention from. Seira went up and leaned on the veranda next to him.
"You can ask me anything. I'll answer to the best of my ability," he assured.
"Fine. You said it yourself, Chairman."
Frankenstein smiled harder, wondering if he should regret that. Seira looked on at the cars passing by and began to talk.
"What will you do to Faust?"
Frankenstein lifted his brows, glancing at her. Oh. So this was what she was waiting for. "I don't know yet," he said honestly.
"You told us he was your student."
"My old apprentice, yes."
"I don't understand why he would do this. You said it's because he couldn't bear to see you contracted to the Noblesse, but I don't understand." Seira sighed, breath turning into wisps in the air.
"Seira," Frankenstein began, "what do you think of me?"
"What?"
Frankenstein gave her a smile before looking forward again.
"I think you're a good person. You vie for what's just and right — from treatment in the school to the happenings of the Union." She looked up. "You're a good teacher."
Frankenstein huffed, looking down and lingering on his pink slippers before replying. "But that's just how you see me now. In this age, I'm a principal of a high school who happens to fight a corrupt organisation on the side. I'm also responsible for the overall education of everyone in the school."
He paused.
"That wasn't who I was when I was with Tesamu," Frankenstein said, saying the name that Seira didn't know she could use. "I was a vengeful, bitter young git who was ready to condemn all noble kind for the actions of six traitor clan leaders. I was misguided." Frankenstein added and Seira nodded lightly.
"But that was a long time ago. Your arrival on Lukedonia challenged everything. I've heard of it from the elders."
"Gejutel," Frankenstein frowned.
"Gejutel-nim," Seira agreed. "Chairman, if not for you, the damage those traitors would have done is unthinkable. Within a few short decades, your suspicions surrounding them halted the Union's plans." Seira shrugged a shoulder. "And you were right to be angry. With all that happened because of mutants in the human world — I would be too."
Frankenstein began to chuckle, covering his mouth with the back of his hand, smiling into the crook of his elbow. "You are kind, Seira."
"It was you that taught me to flatter."
Frankenstein laughed louder, grinning.
"I meant every word I say, Chairman," Seira added.
Frankenstein quietened. "But I was responsible for that child. He had no one, so I took him in and taught him everything I knew. Because I thought…if nothing else, Tesamu could live on. However he chose to use what I gave him, it would be good. But I was the one who instilled his hate of mutants and above all, his hate of nobles. That was what he ultimately took away from me." Frankenstein smirked.
"What happened afterwards?" Seira asked. "You never saw him again?"
"No…he went on to stay with the Union. He found the research I left him — everything I did to create someone like me." Frankenstein looked to Seira, catching her eye for a moment before turning abruptly away.
"So Tesamu turned out exactly like me. Exactly what I would have been, would still be, if not…" he swallowed, rolled his shoulders. "If not for the noblesse."
Slowly, he looked up to see her reaction. Seira only nodded, listening intently.
Frankenstein continued. "It's a joke, how I didn't recognise my own powers the moment Tesamu walked into my office that night. He was right about that. I'd changed so much." He pondered for a moment, wondering what else to say.
"Change is inevitable," Seira began, and the sureness in her voice made Frankenstein look towards her. Seira looked on beyond the veranda. "Back then, you were fighting for what you thought was right. You were right about the source of the mutants, but wrong about nobles. When I first met you and there was a lapse in my connection with Regis, I was ready to fight you, Chairman, for what I thought was right. It wasn't." She peered at him, blinking.
"I know that what I said cannot be equated to what happened back then, but it still stands," Seira said. She pulled back from the railing, no longer leaning on it but clutching it loosely as she turned back to the view. "I have learnt that you are a good man. Just as you have learnt that my people are not a bad people," Seira said, raising her head. Wind tousled her hair over her face, and she daintily drew it to a side.
"Tesamu has also changed, but he has changed for the worst. He's committed great atrocities that I cannot turn a blind eye to," she started, clear and resolute.
"Chairman, Tesamu is not a child anymore. He is hundreds of years old. It doesn't matter what you taught him or wanted him to do — he chose the wrong path. He made the wrong decisions. And for that, he is responsible for them. You cannot keep treating him like a child."
Frankenstein's eyes widened at that. Here was Seira, telling him everything he needed to hear and she was right. He felt immensely thankful and incredibly unsure at the same time.
"What should I do, Seira?" Frankenstein asked suddenly, and probably incredibly inappropriately. By the time he said the words, it was too late to take them back. "The answer should be obvious," he said with a wry smile, "but I don't want to kill him."
Seira didn't answer. It wasn't something he could remotely ask Seira to solve, and Frankenstein kicked himself mentally.
"I don't know," she said after a pause. "But with time, you will know." Seira shifted again, hair steaming down her shoulders. "One more question, Chairman."
"Anything."
"What will you do when Raizel-nim wakes up?"
Frankenstein mentally flinched. An honest answer might have been: get on my knees and beg forgiveness, but he felt that reply wouldn't do. "I don't...I think," he said stupidly. "…I'll need to check his vitals, actually. Master's health is of prime importance. And he deserves tea. Tea and cookies. I haven't baked in a long time and should. I — I guess we're back to eating ramen for dinner…" Frankenstein rambled, colour touching upon his cheeks and Seira just stared.
Finally, he drew in a long breath of air, making a face. "I have no idea how to make things right with Master," Frankenstein sighed. "We spoke so fleetingly at the lakeside."
A breeze fluttered around them and Frankenstein sighed. The smell of something fragrant and sweet filled the air and it was jarring for a moment, though he wasn't in the mind to think of it
"I wonder what would he say to me when he wakes up, too."
"He'll say: welcome home."
Frankenstein swivelled around, hair whipping across Seira's triumphant, 'my-work-here-is-done' face. The black and whites all turned, the world went all focussed and sharp as Frankenstein's stomach plummeted, his throat clenched and his eyes were instantly drawn to the red.
"He'll say that he is most happy to see you. That he's slumbered as fast as he could to meet you again."
Frankenstein stood on the veranda, eyes at their widest, a boneless feeling in his legs that made him feel shaky and ready to topple at any given moment. His body felt weak and despite the colourlessness of everything, he could feel the warmth flood onto his cheeks and redden them.
"He's thought about it for a long time, but he still doesn't know what kinds of things are the right things to say."
Cadis Etrama di Raizel was standing in the house behind him, feet closed together, back straight and head held forward in a practiced, sure-set kind of manner. In his hands was the most ridiculously large bouquet Frankenstein had ever seen, composed completely of tulips — none of them white — that looked about ready to die and fall off the limp stems. Petals littered the floor behind him, as if in his hurry, he hadn't noticed the mess.
"But this is for sure — he thinks that Frankenstein is wonderful, and that Frankenstein is someone he will always cherish."
A sound slipped out of Frankenstein's mouth. He stared on, processing it all.
"He thinks that you deserved better, and he wants to be better for you," Raizel smiled. "He hopes that you will like the flowers…He is very embarrassed of what transpired at the lakeside. He is very embarrassed right now…he has run out of words to say…Tao had advised him to 'just say the truth'…"
Frankenstein shook to life again. Slowly, he walked back into the house, eyes fixed on Raizel with a soft look on his face. He closed the space between them, finally stopping right before Raizel. A relatively long moment passed, and Frankenstein had still not averted his eyes.
"…The children have not clearly advised me what to do is this situation. I am panicking," Raizel said, quiet and raspy. With cold, rigid hands, Raizel held out the flowers to Frankenstein. "I know I've said it on the beach, but,
"I am sorry."
With one fling of his arm, Frankenstein batted the tulips right out of Raizel's hold, scattering the floor with sunken petals. Raizel froze. Worriedly, he looked towards the tulips, then back at Frankenstein, then down to his outstretched hands. Slowly, he lowered them.
"Frankenstein, I—"
Frankenstein stepped forward, clasping his arms around Raizel and drawing him into an embrace. Blond hair fell over his clothes and a chin dug into his back. Raizel gasped. This was far beyond a pat on the shoulder and he felt suddenly, very incompetent. With a small delay, he wrapped his arms around Frankenstein and the action made him squeeze harder, tighter, until every length of space between them was filled and Raizel felt, for the first time in months, right. For now, the world and everything in it felt alright.
"Is this permissible?" Frankenstein asked belatedly over his shoulder.
"Of course," Raizel answered.
"I love the flowers," Frankenstein exclaimed, "thank you."
"You're more than welcome."
Frankenstein felt close and warm and familiar to Raizel. They held on for a moment longer, just resting in each other's embrace.
From the veranda, Seira put up a thumbs up to a side window, where muffled chattering was coming from.
Notes
Yeah this draft of them reuniting is far too cheesy. When I wrote this draft, I hadn't even written those Tesamu Dark Spear dreams yet. Also the weird, sudden pov change is ?
On a side note, I really love all the different things people call Franken. It's definitely due to different translations but I love it anyway.
Seira usually goes "Chairman Lee," or even "Director Lee."
The trio call Franken either his name or "Boss." Tao goes "Boss" the most, and I'm sure M-21 says the most "Frankenstein" compared to "Boss."
Regis...not sure if this is just me but I think he calls Franken "Principal," or "Principal Lee." I'm sure Seira has called him this at one point too.
And some other top picks: "Traitor of the Humans." "That Peacock." "The Noblesse's Bonded." "Is the principal the Devil™?"
And there's also Tesamu's "Teacher/mentor" and the best translation by far done by egscans, "Professor" in fic.
