Day Two: Other Classes and Short Circuits

(A/N: I don't own Trinity Blood or VBS or, really, anything.)

"Thank heaven for break time," Abel muttered.

"What?" Esther teased, "You don't absolutely love the little darlings?"

"Oh, yes." He pulled his long silver hair around to his face and began showily pulling bits of pink and green gum from it.

"…I see," Esther said. "Father Abel Nightroad, traveling priest and wastebasket."

In return for her witty, good-natured remark, she received a conceding smile and a sigh.

"Perhaps we should check on His Holiness and Brother Petro."

---

They walked along the hallway lazily, poking their heads in doorways when possible. As they passed by, Esther saw Dietrich sitting on a linoleum-covered floor holding a felt puppet in his lap. She stopped and watched, slightly unnerved by her former best friend's sadistic grin. When he twitched his fingers, the puppet began to dance a quick jig. With more movement and another puppet, Dietrich was able to create a disturbing reenactment of a vampire attack. What more, the children were watching with wide-eyed fascination, silent as the walls around them. Esther shuddered and ran to catch up with Abel.

The next room to catch their interest held Pope Alessandro and Brother Petro, who seemed to dominate the conversation as well as most of the floor space. The Pope sat on a small table, feet dangling while he tried to steady the mitre on his head. Abel looked at Esther and opened the door a crack.

"And those who oppose the army of the Lord are doomed to a fiery pit of terror and despair, and brimstone shall rain down upon them, and they shall rue the day they ever denounced the Lord of all that is good."

Abel whispered to Esther, "I believe he does special exercises to develop such impressive lung capacity."

Esther laughed quietly as they watched the children's reactions to the long-winded warrior. Wide-eyed and open-mouthed, they seemed riveted by the knight's tales of battle and honor.

"Do you think this is really such a good idea?" Esther said.

Abel shrugged and kept watching. The young Pope, for once among children near his own age, seemed less frightened by Petro than usual. In fact, hearing about the Inquisition's adventures appeared to capture his attention as well.

Suddenly, all lights within sight began blinking and flickering. Esther looked worriedly at Abel. This church was in a Vatican-protected part of Rome, but there was still the faint possibility of a vampire ambush. Surely not a church full of children…

Without so much as a glance at Esther, Abel began running to the crafts room downstairs. Esther followed, if only to be sure that he didn't fall.

"Tres-kun!" Abel yelled, concern mingling with humor in his voice. He threw open the door and stopped, trying to hide a sudden grin."Tres-kun, why does this always happen?"

The handsome android lay on the floor next to the inflatable, water-filled pool, eyes closed.

"Is he all right?" Esther asked from behind the silver-haired Crusnik.

"I believe so. Tres-kun is rather tough, you know."

"What about the lights?" Esther pointed to the ceiling. Abel looked back at Tres and tipped his head to the side slightly. Then he caught sight of the broken red-and green Christmas bulbs in the pool and Tres' wet glove.

"Aha," he said softly. He carefully unplugged the offending light bulbs and, like magic, all flickering overhead ceased.

Esther went to fetch the Professor, Tres' "father", and the Cardinal, since she was the director of this catastrophe. When they arrived at the scene of the accident, Tres was sitting upright in a chair while Abel tried to get some information from him.

Caterina massaged her forehead while she adjusted her monocle.

"Father Tres," she began.

"Yes, my lady?" Tres said.

"Oh, I see, you'll talk to her but not to me?" Abel asked, annoyed with his younger coworker.

"Father Abel Nightroad, my data suggests that, although behavioral scans may provide contradictory information, you are not of the feminine persuasion,. As such, it appears that conversing with my superior," he looked into her eyes with something that could only be described as desire, "would be a more enjoyable use of available time."

Rather taken aback, the Cardinal blushed lightly and began cleaning the monocle hurriedly.

Abel, on the other hand, bit his lip in a failed attempt to stop smirking.

William, who wore a most unconvincing expression of seriousness on his face, tried to talk to the young robot.

"Tres, my boy. Do your central nervous systems seem to be warmer than usual?"

Rather than answering, Tres continued to watch Caterina. Her every movement seemed to fascinate him.

"Oh, no."

"What?" Abel grabbed William's collar in a dramatic gesture. "Please, Doctor, say you can fix him! He won't die, will he?"

"Doctor?" William pushed the child-like man's chair aside and sat down beside Tres.

"I was going to say that Tres' internal processing unit appears to have been submerged for longer than ideal. It also seems that he became infatuated with the first woman he saw. I suppose that's you, Cardinal."

Caterina giggled in a most un-Cardinal-like fashion, blushing again. Tres reached out to grab the hand not holding the monocle. His eyes widened in awe of her face, now a deeper shade of red than her Cardinal's outfit.

"Tres, dear, you, um…" She trailed off uncertainly.

William stood up heavily and clapped Tres on the shoulder. "Tres, I believe you need a quick check-up. Come along, now."

In an uncharacteristic movement, Tres swept his 'father's hand off his shoulder and continued gazing into Caterina's eyes.

"Tres, I mean it. Don't make me get angry." But William looked far from angry. Instead, he rather resembled a proud mother, eagerly watching her lovelorn son.

"Do… do you think he'll be all right, Professor?" Esther asked, eying Tres carefully.

"Oh, certainly. He'll need a little drying, of course, and perhaps a new internal processor, but there's nothing to worry about. Unless…"

"Unless?"

At that moment, Tres slipped out of the cheap plastic chair and bent down on one knee, his face full of nervous determination.

"What is he…Tres! Noooooo!"

With a powerful leap deserving of slow-motion technology, William jumped between his 'son' and his superior, apparently under the impression that Tres was planning to propose to his boss.

"Come with me, Tres. Now!" He held out his hand and pasted as stern a look on his face as possible. Tres looked at him with disdain and continued his interrupted serenade.

" Doubt that the stars be fire

Doubt that the sun does move

Doubt truth to be a liar

But never doubt I love "

Abel looked impressed. "He's got quite a voice."

William, on the other hand, was more embarrassed than he could ever recall.

"Come on, Tres. We're going to get you back to normal." With that, he dragged Tres out of the room, where Abel, Esther, and Caterina all looked at each other in an amused silence.

---

The next two classes passed in a blur of fatigue, humiliation, and unfortunate accidents with the Superglue. By the time Esther, Tres and Abel had packed up their things for the night, even the usually bouncy priest was worn out.

"It hurts…" he wailed as they walked across Rome. His glasses dangled precariously from his nose.

"Abel, I told you three times not to grass-skirt Petro. He didn't like it."

"Uggghh…"

"According to my database, this mission will cease on Friday evening of the current week."

"Ohhh…" groaned Esther. "My head…"

(A/N: Thanks for reading! Bonus points to anyone who can tell me which Shakespearean play Tres' serenade comes from.