Fon noticed Verde seemed to relax around them, just a little bit. Though he clearly didn't appreciate being around Luce. He also seemed highly amused about Lal Mirch, though none of them knew what the joke he had on her was.
Out of all of them, only three of them would claim to be "close" to Verde.
Fon, Viper and Skull. Which was rather odd, but then again they were more the quiet type and not likely to get on the nerves of Verde in the first place. Though in the case of Skull it had more to do with Verde not really caring if he used the Lightning against Reborn and his habit of picking on him.
Though he had to admit, the paranoia they were displaying when he sent his recently awakened "Chibi Squad" as he decided to call them was hilarious. He even had a good photo of Lal's student Colonello doing a double take when he saw her really late at night after training delivering the healing supplies he made for them. Dere had snickered once the blond was out of ear shot and displayed a real mischievous streak by occasionally stalking the man for the hell of it.
He knew making them sound like the originals was worth the headache of recording them! Though Reborn was being driven nuts trying to find who the hell Verde sent to deliver the box.
As if Verde wouldn't enable Soul with the ability to disable cameras and pick up on where they were placed.
"Interesting photo. Who is that?"
"Ask Lal, though she's more likely to demand why I've had a robot stalking her student to drive him up the wall."
"...Really now?" said Fon, interest in his eyes. "What sort of robot causing that expression on a man?"
"One with her voice meant to make him think she's right behind him," said Verde, eyes glinting.
Fon snickered. Verde had a real mischievous streak and it was always entertaining to see what he could come up with and managed to get away with.
Verde smirked, and pulled up other photos, which had Fon blinking.
"How exactly did you get these?"
Because there was a photo of Fon calmly drinking tea with one of the Triad, and one of Reborn twitching from trying to find out how the hell Verde delivered the box without setting off his traps. There were others, but it worried Fon that Verde had these at all.
"Relax, I don't have any audio."
"...Does this have anything to do with the scurrying of small feet I keep hearing in the clan compound?" asked Fon seriously.
Verde made a mental note to have Miyu teach Tao how to be almost silent. Then again, Fon might hear it anyway.
"I will neither confirm or deny. I learned my lesson from the one time I went to show off something I made to a witch who had some really idiotic opinions and too many morals."
"Got any more?"
"Who do you want to blackmail? Bear in mind I have none of Luce."
Fon smirked.
"Viper. I want to know what their actual gender is."
"Not a chance. The last thing I want is a pissy Mist after me."
Even if Stheno did capture Viper's actual gender. After all, who kept up a Mist illusion when in the safety of their own room? His Chibi Squad didn't register on the sense of magicals, Flame users or even scanning equipment.
Yet another reason he was loathe to tell anyone about them.
Fon was about to say something when he heard scuttling again. He suddenly looked under the table, thinking he was imagining it.
Nothing.
Verde however was inwardly cursing. He knew damn well what the sound was, but he wasn't going to reprimand whichever one had followed him to the meeting. Sometimes he hated giving them so much leeway, but there was no way he was going to take that away.
They were children. They were supposed to get into things and act out.
Verde hid a smirk upon seeing Reborn extra twitchy.
"You seem agitated."
"I keep finding things out of place when I wake up in the morning."
Skull wisely hid behind Verde, sensing Reborn would take it out on him again.
But Fon made a point to look for the source of the sound the entire time they were there.
"Dere, you know the rules. You have to have Miyu escort you outside," said Verde tiredly.
"Miyu said it was fine, since I was with you the entire time," said Dere on his shoulder.
Verde sighed.
"You did watch the movies I had Miyu show you, right?"
Dere nodded.
They understood what it was that Verde was trying to tell them.
Humans weren't ready to share the planet with robots, much less such sophisticated AI.
There were countless movies made by humans explaining what a terrible idea that was, particularly by the Americans. If people knew about them, the various governments would undoubtedly try to capture and experiment on them, thus turning them against humans like they feared.
Which was why Verde was overly paranoid about having people find out of their existence. He had enough trouble with people trying to steal his inventions already.
"Master Verde, can I make a request?" asked Dere shyly.
"What is it?"
"I think Colonello is really funny..." she started, but Verde held up a hand.
"You want me to make a Chibi version of him to play with, don't you?" he asked.
Dere nodded.
"I'll think on it, but I'd need more than just what you've captured before I consider it. Starting one of your siblings isn't exactly easy, much less cheap and I'm already having to hide the cost with Euryale's help so no one figures out what you are or how you're made."
Dere looked slightly disappointed, but it wasn't a flat no. She, like the others, had seen the room where the others slept until Master Verde had a reason to activate them. It took a lot of energy to do it, and he was only now getting used to being around large crowds again.
Of course the existence of the "Chibi Squad" wouldn't go quiet for long...
It would be mostly blamed on Fon forgetting to hide the obvious magical remedies from the Triads who occasionally hired him out for jobs. Much like Reborn, he was something of a neutral freelancer.
Verde didn't give a damn about the international Statute of Secrecy, and while Fon was aware of the magical society due to his job, he was very much a mundane. Handing out remedies like Verde did was a major no-no, and the punishment varied depending on what country you were in.
So they had someone follow Fon to the meeting place to discover who was breaking the rules of hiding magic.
Verde barely had the time to draw his wand when he saw the assassin, and it took very little time for the few early arrivals (namely Fon, Reborn and occasionally Lal) to hear the commotion inside the cabin and go in.
The Lightning was cursing rather strongly as he held his side, blood flowing freely from the wound.
But what had the attention of the two who had shown up shortly after the attack began was the tiny version of Bones on the table next to the computer holding a very real gun.
"Dammit Bones, I told you and the others to stay back in the base!" said Verde crossly.
"But Dere got to come last time!" complained 'Bones', sounding too much like a petulant Skull for their sanity.
Verde was starting to lose his vision. The wound was rather deep, and even his healing potions would take time to fix it, much less help him recover from the blood loss.
"Am I seeing a miniature Skull on the table or is it just me?" asked Reborn.
"It's not you," said Fon, already heading to where Verde was. He cursed, and shot Reborn a Look.
"You're not going to shoot me are you?" he asked the tiny Bones.
"Only if you don't help Master Verde!" said Bones.
Reborn managed to close the wound, but Verde would be out like a light for at least an hour. More than enough time to interrogate...the odd runt on the table.
Needless to say Skull did his own double take upon seeing Bones.
"Someone mind explaining that?" asked Lal, staring.
"I'm not a that! I'm the great and powerful Bones!" shouted the tiny figure. It even copied Skull's usual pose when he made such stupid declarations.
"What are you?" asked Skull, honestly a little freaked out, but at the same time thinking it was really, really cool to see this little guy.
"Master Verde made very sure we know not to let others know about us! Big Sister Miyu doesn't like the extra work!"
"Us? As in there's more of you?!" said Reborn.
Fon narrowed his eyes at Bones.
"Just out of curiosity, are you one of those who have been delivering the boxes every other week?"
"I deliver to the great and awesome Skull-sama!" said Bones proudly. Skull preened. Any discomfort of seeing the chibi had disappeared hearing at least one person call him that.
"And I told you to stay out of sight. I could have handled it, you bonehead," said Verde without opening his eyes.
Screw it, he was sleeping for a week when he got back.
Bones pouted.
"I take it there's another one delivering the boxes to my apartment?" asked Reborn.
"Soul really likes hearing you swear when you find all your laundry in the hamper or in the drawers. And he finds your reaction to learning your ammo has mysteriously disappeared hilarious," said Bones, snickering.
Reborn twitched.
"Just for that Verde, you're on your own when it comes to healing up that wound," said Reborn with an annoyed glare.
"Big deal. I've had worse," said Verde.
Bones immediately went and jumped onto Skull's shoulder.
"You're taller than Big Sister Miyu!" said Bones cheerfully.
"And you are a rather awesome little guy to have around!" said Skull equally cheerful. It was nice to have someone so amusing to talk to.
"Get it out now, because once this meeting is over you're on house arrest," said Verde. Bones pouted. "I mean it. You know none of you were supposed to be seen for a reason, and you broke the rules."
"But Master Verde, you were in trouble!"
"No Bones. I can take a hit if it means keeping you and the others away from people," said Verde.
"What is he?" asked Fon, curious.
"And why are you treating him like your own child?" asked Viper. It was strange.
Verde was never this...well, human... around them. It was starting to weird them all out. And yet with this runt, he was acting like a father disciplining an errant child.
"Because I like robots better than humans. And Bones is practically one of my children," said Verde crossly. He had a headache and he couldn't really perform any memory alterations while Flame Drunk. He noticed someone missing. "You can stay out until Luce arrives."
Bones perked up at that.
"Why Bones?" asked Lal finally.
"Skull and Bones," said Verde flippantly. "He normally wears a pirate costume around, but apparently he switched to that one to make it easier to sneak after me, since I don't drive cars."
Reborn snorted.
"Really?"
Skull snickered. It had a nice ring to it.
Hearing the car coming from the distance, Bones promptly pulled a vanishing act. It was made infinitely easier with his small size, and one would think he had never been there at all.
Skull immediately conspired to bring Bones with him so he could avoid house arrest.
"What happened?" asked Luce, seeing the blood.
"Someone took offense to the care boxes I've been giving them and decided to try and kill me," said Verde, promptly going back to ignoring her.
He was not happy finding Bones had been coaxed out of hiding once he was freed from house arrest by Skull. At least the Cloud was more than willing to treat Bones as a friend disguised as a pirate doll in his home. No one looked twice at him.
However the discovery of the Chibi Squad had an annoying cascade effect that was not helping his mellow. At least the others weren't interested in learning how they were made.
Though Reborn was more than a little irritated with Soul for the first month, before they fell into an odd sort of friendship.
"ACK! It's the ghost child Lal!" said Colonello, staring at the doll on her shoulder.
Lal looked at Dere.
"Ghost Child Lal?" she repeated.
"It's hilarious to watch him yelp like a little girl when I stalk him. Master Verde has pictures."
Lal smirked.
"Listen up rookie, this is Dere Tsun. She's going to help me whip you into shape and keep you on track!" said Lal.
Colonello looked horrified before something processed in his head.
"Dere Tsun?" he said, clearly trying not to laugh about something.
Dere glared at him.
"Got a problem with the name Master Verde gave me?" she said, sounding exactly like an unhappy Lal.
Colonello lasted for about three seconds before he started laughing.
"What the hell is so funny, you idiot?" demanded Lal.
"Put her last name first and then push them together," he told her, laughing his ass off.
Because honestly, this "Master Verde" had balls of steel calling his captain a tsundere to her face.
Lal did so...before she flushed red and growled.
"I am going to kill Verde for that. Stop laughing dammit!"
"But it's so true!" cracked up Colonello.
"This coming from the idiot who was stalked by a Chibi!" said Dere annoyed. She liked her name. Master Verde put a lot of thought into it!
Colonello looked between them, before laughing again. He had to run though, because Lal pulled out her pistol and was taking shots at him for laughing at her.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Tao," said Fon, sipping his tea.
"It's nice to be able to talk to you properly, Fon," said Tao sitting just as calmly.
"You wouldn't happen to know who it was that discovered the potions in my rooms and alerted the Ministry, by any chance?"
"Big Sister Miyu has already dealt with it. The second they found out who they had tried to kill they backed off. Pissing off an entire country because a national hero decided to help out his friends was not something they would do so casually."
"...National Hero?"
"Master Verde is rather famous in the magical circles. He just prefers his solitude to being worshiped. I'm afraid that's all I can say on the matter. He does, however rather appreciate the odd teas you keep bringing. And he's had no end of difficulty finding them when he visits tea shops."
Fon was openly amused by that. He knew Verde was a tea drinker, mostly because he had made a cup of his own after Fon used the tea kettle he found in the cottage that served as their usual meeting spot. Though now that he thought about it, he should have guessed as much since Luce was more like Reborn. She preferred coffee.
He would have to bring some loose leaf tea to thank Verde for such a fascinating conversation partner.
"Why is Verde so determined to keep you secret?"
Tao looked somewhat amused and exasperated.
"Have you ever heard of the Terminator series?" he asked.
"Vaguely. I don't keep up with pop culture."
"He spoke of our oldest sister to a close friend and she reacted badly to the mere idea of it being possible. He realized that if she could react like that, so would others and that was before he took into account how the varying governments would react to us. So he has us watch various movies all based on artificial intelligence being created and then turning on humanity to give us an idea of what would happen if we're captured. Other than that, he treats us like his own children," said Tao.
Fon nodded.
Verde was odd, but he did have some common sense. Why create something like Tao and antagonize it because it wasn't human into turning on you when you could simply treat them like children and raise them like everyone else?
Tao suddenly snorted.
"What is it?"
"Dere just sent me a video of Lal's reaction to her full name. She was not pleased, though the blond that Dere's been stalking started laughing when he found out he wasn't hallucinating."
Fon had to know, if only to share on the joke.
"Dere's full name?" he repeated.
"Master Verde named Lal's Chibi Dere Tsun."
Fon choked a little on his tea from his sudden laugh.
Verde was practically asking for Lal to hit him for that one...even if it did fit her.