Title: Chapter XI: Troublemaker
Writer: Madame aZure
Fandom: Noblesse;
Pairing: None
Genre: Family;
Rating: K;
Warnings: there are no warnings for this chapter. Read at your own risk.
Disclaimer: I do not own Noblesse or any of the characters. No trademark infringement or profit is meant from the writing of this fanfiction.
There was no better way to relax after a long day of work than with a movie, a lot of treats and the company of your family, Tao decided. Well, all the family, except M-21. Although the hacker went to great pains to convince Frankenstein to let M-21 watch movies with them past his bedtime, the little one simply fell asleep not long after the movie began, so they had to take him to his room and tuck him in bed. It might've slipped Tao's mind that his comrade was still a child who needed a lot of sleep. Oh, well, he'll just have to find a way to compensate for this little slip-up of his. Maybe organize a trip somewhere fun? Hm, that was an interesting idea…
The movie was nearing its end, when a loud thud followed by the sound of urgent footsteps thumping in the room above them distracted them from it.
"Shouldn't the little one be asleep by now?" Takeo frowned, looking to the part of the ceiling from where the sounds were heard.
"He should," Tao hummed in response. "Maybe he had a nightmare and woke up? I'll go check it out," he sat up and left the living room.
The rest of them resumed watching the movie, considering that the hacker could handle something like this. And it appeared to be so because the noises above them ceased strangely abruptly. Not even a few seconds of peace and quiet later and the noises returned, now something more of a ruckus, complimented with the sound of things breaking and exclamations like 'ouch', 'hey' and 'don't do that', all these belonging to Tao. This was definitely unusual, but only when glass shattered with a loud crash, Frankenstein and Takeo decided it was time to intervene, going to M-21's room.
The room looked like a hurricane passed through, from the bed covers ruffled and torn, to the several things thrown around, probably after being used as projectiles, to the broken window, shards of glass scattered everywhere.
Tao was in the middle of all this chaos, hair disheveled, a claw-like mark over his nose, bite marks and scratches all over his arms, his clothes ripped as if he had just battled a feline of some sort. Or a wolf. Currently, he was trying to keep M-21 from escaping his grasp, one of his arms going around the child's torso to support him and hopefully still him, the other arm… being a little occupied at the moment as the werewolf was gnawing at its wrist. The child had his fangs sunken so deep into the hacker's wrist that blood was seeping from the wound, a low growl resounding from the back of his throat. He was wriggling and squirming, trying to escape, his little claws scratching Tao's arm in hopes of forcing him to let go. Although the whole situation was ridiculous, what really drew attention were, well… the new appendages the child was sporting. On top of his head, a pair of fluffy, silver, wolf-like ears were pushed back into a position that showed fear, while a bushy tail was curled around him. He glared heatedly, his slitted irises going from Takeo to Frankenstein, watching them intently in case either of them made a move.
"Uh, a little help here? His fangs are sharper than they look," Tao laughed awkwardly, wincing when the little one dug his fangs even deeper into his wrist.
Frankenstein simply sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose. He had assumed that something like this would happen since young werewolves had a tendency to suddenly lose control over their transformations and with M-21 in that state, it was only a matter of time. He attempted to come to the hacker and save him from the biting werewolf, but not even one step in the room and the little one's growls grew louder, upper lip curling over his fangs, eyes narrowing, all his attention focused only on him. Frankenstein wasn't even fazed at this brave display of threats, merely amused.
"Young man, no growling at people under this roof," he reproved him, coming to them with slow, firm steps to show that he meant his words. M-21 growled at him loud enough for his throat to vibrate visibly, tensing in preparation for either flight or fight depending on what the blond did, but one blink and his eyes widened and shifted from Frankenstein to the door, as if there was something that demanded attention.
"Little one," Raizel called him, appearing in the doorway so silently as if he had just materialized from thin air. Although his face was thrown into a dim shadow by the lights coming from the hallway, his eyes shone like hot iron, fixing the child not in a angry or threatening way, but rather a focused way, as if he was searching for something within the child, something difficult to reach. "Calm down," his words echoed in the room with the power hidden in them and perhaps even a command, but the gentle tone proved otherwise. It was rather an awakening call than an order.
The werewolf looked at him, mesmerized by his crimson eyes, slowly relaxing and letting go of the hacker's wrist. With one blink, his slitted pupils dilated, sparkling with recognition, ears perking up towards the noble, his tail uncurling from around him, its tip wagging lightly. He then looked at the others in the room as if he was seeing them for the first time, and from a conscious point of view, it probably was.
One nod from Frankenstein and Tao put the child down, the little one going straight to Raizel, stopping in front of him and looking up at him. The noble smiled, patting him gently on the head, making the werewolf wag his tail even faster in delight.
"Sooo… is he all there or…" Tao was the first to talk, still grinning despite looking like he had attempted to wrestle a very angry cat.
"Currently he is mostly instinctual, but will transform back after some time," Raizel answered, his fingers carefully caressing the child's hair so he wouldn't accidentally touch his sensitive ears.
"As long as he doesn't want to chew my face off, it's cool," the hacker chuckled, inspecting his already healing battle wounds.
"You must've took him by surprise and that's why he attacked you," Takeo guessed with a huff, smiling at the little one who just closed his eyes and started leaning into Raizel's touch, enjoying being petted.
"Well, it's not like I was expecting to be ambushed by a tiny, vicious werewolf," Tao shrugged.
"Still, it would've been much appreciated if you could've handled this with a little less… collateral damage," Frankenstein let out a long, suffering sigh, one of his brows almost twitching at the sight of the wrecked room. "Tao, Takeo, please clean up this mess."
~Z~
"He has transformed, but his aura remains unchanged," Regis noted with a slight frown, watching Seira with a perplexed expression as she happily brushed the child's puffy tail, her behavior hardly befitting a noble, but he was too much of a gentleman to mention it.
After Raizel and Frankenstein brought M-21 into the living room so Tao and Takeo could clean his room of the mess, all Seira needed was a look at the werewolf and her rigorous, yet elegant self-control snapped. The child had already charmed her, but add a pair of fluffy wolf ears, a tail and an innocent happiness in his eyes, and she was love-struck. Now master of the ways of baiting the werewolf with treats, all it took was a plate of vanilla muffins and she convinced him to let her groom him. M-21 wasn't even protesting, too preoccupied with the delicious muffins to care about what she was doing.
"He instinctually hid his presence," Frankenstein explained, taking a sip from his tea.
"Instinctually?" Regis asked for more clarification, since hiding one's presence was a conscious action.
"Generally, one has to learn how to suppress one's powers in order to hide the aura. However, this doesn't particularly apply to werewolves, since the way they develop is a little different from other species'. The first set of skills they acquire are the 'flight' skills such as speed, perception, camouflage, which enables them to escape a confrontation rather than fight their way out of it. Their claws and fangs develop much later in their lives, a pups' abilities being focused solely on survival," the scientist explained patiently.
"That doesn't really explain why he transformed," Tao intervened as he and Takeo had just entered the living room after having finished their cleaning task, taking a seat on the sofa. M-21 wouldn't usually transform unless he did it intentionally or there was a triggering event.
"It is not uncommon for werewolf pups to lose control and transform," Frankenstein answered.
"But the ears and the tail?" Takeo smiled in amusement, throwing a glance at M-21.
"Tail for a better stability of the overall movement set, ears, eyes and," Frankenstein paused to chuckle lightly, "whiskers for an enhanced perception field."
"Wait, he has whiskers?" the hacker asked, looking intently at the child, because while battling the little one and trying to keep him from biting him, he did not have the time to notice all the details. Indeed the werewolf had several white, almost transparent, long whiskers on his cheeks that moved in the rhythm of his chewing. "Dear god, he has whiskers…" Tao breathed out, hiding his face in his palms because the little one was just too adorable.
Seira finally finished brushing the werewolf's tail, M-21 raising it and inspecting it closely. Delighted with the results, his tail started waggling lightly. The child ignored its movement at first, going back to finish his muffin, then started watching it out the corner of his eyes, then finally turned all his attention to it, eyes narrowing into a playful look. He chewed the rest of the muffin and licked his lips clean of the powdered sugar, his body tensing like a predator's about to catch its prey. With a playful growl he pounced on his own tail, trying to catch it, failing to understand that it would move along with him. He looked at his hands with a surprised expression, not understanding why the tail wasn't in his claws. He threw a glance behind him to see where his new-found prey has gone, and sighting it, he went for another bold attack, completely oblivious at how the others were trying to stifle their amused snickers and chuckles. After some twirling and a few pounces, he was finally able to grab his sneaky tail, grasping it tightly with both his hands so it wouldn't escape, bringing its tip to his mouth to chew on it.
"Little one, don't bite your tail," Frankenstein reproved him, signing a 'no' with his index finger.
The child looked at him, the tip of his tail still in between his fangs, and after a few moments of pondering, he let it go reluctantly but kept on watching it with a playful glint in his eyes.
"What do we do with him until he transforms back?" Takeo asked, noticing the child's frolicsome behavior.
"How about we play with him?" Tao grinned brightly, while Frankenstein simply paled a the comment, horrible images of his house thrown into a havoc flashing before his very eyes.
TO BE CONTINUED… :)