That's It?

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Frankenstein had just switched the kettle on when he heard the living room door opening. That was strange - Master was – it was M-21 paused in the doorway, his hair tousled, the shadows were under his eyes darker than the last time Frankenstein had seen him.

"Is there something wrong?" Frankenstein asked, pulling a mug out of the cupboard. M-21 should be in bed – it was three in the morning.

M-21 stiffened and then shook his head. "Nothing." The word was clipped, hissed behind clenched teeth.

M-21 hesitated for a second, and then squared his shoulders. "I'm going out."

"Very well," Frankenstein said, nodding.

He was about to turn back to the kettle when M-21 said, "That's it? You're not going to ask-" He stopped, his lips pursed.

"Where you're going?" Frankenstein filled in. The muscles around M-21's eyes tightened. He'd guessed correctly. Frankenstein shook his head. "You live here – you are free to come and go as you please."

M-21 stared at him for a few seconds. When Frankenstein turned his attention back to his tea, M-21 left the house.

Haaah… The signs said M-21 had difficulty sleeping and Frankenstein could hazard a few guesses of the cause. The problem was Frankenstein was sure M-21 would treat any remedy he offered him with suspicion.

If he were to keep him busy, however, that could help stop M-21 from dwelling too much.

So what should he ask M-21 to do…

* * *

M-21 looked over his shoulder when he heard someone walk towards the balcony. It was Frankenstein and M-21 frowned at the piece of paper in his hand. It was folded in half, the line crisp, and what was it?

"Are you busy?" Frankenstein asked.

M-21 gave him a blank stare. "I'm standing in a balcony at seven in the morning – what do you think?" He didn't know what time he'd come back in the morning, but Frankenstein hadn't been waiting for him. Which meant Frankenstein's words hadn't been a test and he'd actually meant it. Somehow.

"That you might feel like doing something," Frankenstein said, holding the paper out towards him. "Here's a list-" Of people he wanted dead? "-of items I need for dinner tonight."

M-21 stared at the piece of paper again. "You want me to go…shopping." That was it?

Frankenstein nodded, a small smile curving his lips. "Yes. You will be able to find all the items in the main supermarket. Can you read all of it?"

He scanned the list. That was the neatest writing M-21 had ever seen. "Yeah." There were a few words he didn't recognise, but he would be able to find them.

"Good. Now," Frankenstein said, reaching behind him and taking out a wallet. It was filled with paper money and Frankenstein pulled a number of them out, "this should be enough for it all."

…That was more money he and M-24 got to spend for an entire mission. And Frankenstein was just giving him all this?

"And you can keep the change."

There was the catch. Of course there was one. "For the next time you send me out." He had a limited amount of money so he had to be careful with it.

Except there was no answering smirk on Frankenstein's face. Only slight puzzlement. "No – for you to spend however you want."

…What. That didn't make any sense.

"Ah, and one more thing," Frankenstein said, patting himself down.

Now what? Not be seen? What?

"Here." Frankenstein held up a set of...keys. "You'll need this when you return. This is for the front door. You turn it to the right to open it."

M-21 stared at him again. That...didn't make sense. In all his years at the Union, he had never been entrusted with keys before. He had never been trusted with anything before.

"The only requirement is that the groceries are in the kitchen before we return."

That was about nine hours. He had nine hours for a shopping trip. "And that's it?"

"That's it," Frankenstein said. "Master and I need to get ready for school, so we'll see you when we get back." He inclined his head and left.

M-21 glanced at the list again. He should do it as soon as possible, in case something went wrong. Then he could figure out what to do afterwards.

* * *

M-21 closed the front door behind him, his hands filled with plastic bags. He'd been right – the trip had taken longer than expected, though for the most part it was because he couldn't find the item on the list so he had to search every single shelf before he'd spotted it. Even after buying everything on the list, he'd still been left with a wad of cash. He didn't know when Frankenstein's generosity would run out, so he would keep a hold of it.

He put the bags on the counter, hearing the plastic rustle as the items inside settled, the tickling clock the only other sound in the room.

There was still hours until Frankenstein and his master came back from school.

Hn. Frankenstein had said that all he had to do was make sure all the stuff was in the kitchen. Which it was. But he'd taken a few of the items from the freeze, so he should put those in the fridge in case they spoiled.

Though M-21 still hadn't figured out why Frankenstein needed so many fruit drinks at once…

* * *

The kitchen was as tidy as it could be when Frankenstein arrived home and he spied new boxes of food tucked into corners. Good. M-21 had done the shopping and put them away as well.

His living room however…

"Yeah! We won that round!" Ik-han cheered, celebrating with Yuna. He pointed at Shinwoo with a grin. "Loser has to get the next round of snacks."

With a loud grumble, Shinwoo got to his feet and went to the fridge. "I'll win the next one!" he called out over his shoulder.

"That's what you said last time."

Shinwoo poked his head into the kitchen. "There's – fruit juice? No."

Frankenstein sighed at the sound of Shinwoo moving the bottles to the side. He'd hoped he would be able to get the children to eat some healthy food.

* * *

M-21 watched Frankenstein and his master through his hair as they began to eat dinner. It smelled as good as the night before, but it was never a good idea to let his guard down.

"You did well this morning, getting everything on the list."

And even when he didn't let his guard down, Frankenstein still surprised him. M-21 shrugged, looking away. "It wasn't hard." Appearing competent was a double-edged sword – it meant he was still useful so there was less chance of him being killed; the problem was if he was given more to do because of it.

M-21 blinked when that was all Frankenstein said. Why…Why was it always like this? Frankenstein and his master didn't act like he was used to. He dropped his gaze and prodded at some of the rice on his plate.

Frankenstein chuckled and when M-21 glanced at him, Frankenstein indicated the food spread with a sweep of his hand with a smile. "Feel free to eat whatever you like."

That sounded familiar. With a sigh, M-21 double-checked which plates the other two had already eaten from and started eating from those.

* * *

A few hours later, M-21 went down into the living room. He was eating more in one meal than he got in one week at the Union, but his body was already adjusting, wanting more. Or was this how often he was supposed to eat? Unmodified humans ate three meals a day…

Frankenstein's master was there, reading something on the sofa. He didn't greet M-21 so he didn't either and he went to the kitchen. Frankenstein had said he could eat anything in there and so far Frankenstein hadn't lied to him.

The first thing M-21 spotted at the front of the fridge was the fruit drinks. It was the same number as what he'd put in so that meant it should be fine if he took one.

He had just drank from it when he heard the soft exhale from Frankenstein's master. He looked over and Frankenstein's master had placed his hand on the open page in front of him.

"Frankenstein tends to work late when he is in his laboratory," Frankenstein's master said and M-21 could take a hint.

"I'll tell him," M-21 said, recapping the bottle.

It meant stepping back into a lab, but it was better knowing what to expect than pretending it didn't exist.

* * *

Frankenstein hummed to himself, taking notes on his latest results. It seemed like a good outcome, but was it sweet enough…?

He stopped at the sound of the doors opening behind him and he turned around. "Mast-" That wasn't Master. "M-21? I'm surprised to see you here." With his history, Frankenstein had thought M-21 wouldn't enter his lab unless he was forced to. His body language was stiff, his arms close to his sides, the – ah, it was pleasing to know someone was drinking the fruit juice. It hadn't been an entire waste.

"You going to sleep soon?" M-21's gaze drifted towards the machines, studying them.

Frankenstein blinked at the question. That was also unexpected. "You're worried about me?"

M-21 snorted. "No. Your master is."

"Oh?" M-21 had picked up on that? Master hadn't said anything to him. Frankenstein checked the link between himself and Master and amusement answered back.

I thought it would be best if he grew accustomed to you.

So you sent him down. Frankenstein sighed, removing his glasses. "This can wait until tomorrow." It wasn't something urgent that needed to be finished as soon as possible.

Master's pleasure thrummed down their link and as he and M-21 left the lab together, the tenseness in M-21's shoulders disappearing.

* * *

M-21's shoulders slumped as the children started cheering again, Yuna moving her 'player piece' forward. He didn't know what the point of the game was (he had been grabbed into the game as soon as he stepped into the house), but he'd been able to stay ahead of Frankenstein and his master, so he hadn't been flicked in the forehead yet.

And he was going to try and keep it that way.

* * *

"How the hell was that supposed to be fun," M-21 muttered under his breath as he and Frankenstein picked up the mess the children had left behind, Frankenstein's master having another cup of tea on the sofa.

"Avoiding punishment as well as winning and being 'the best' out of all the participants is an enjoyable feeling," Frankenstein said while wiping the table down with a cloth.

Put it like that…that sounded like it made sense. M-21 could understand that.

"Group activities and doing things in general can be fun," Frankenstein continued.

Hm. "And they do this every night," M-21 said, sweeping the floor.

He saw Frankenstein stop. "Not quite, haha…" Frankenstein cleared his throat. "Sometimes they and Master go to the local PC bang and spend their afternoons there."

And didn't make a mess here.

They didn't sound too bad, so long as he got some warning first.

* * *

M-21 stared around at the living room. It was finally clean and…he was restless.

He was used to doing something, even if it was waiting, because that waiting led to something. Meeting someone for the mission, for the information to come through, that one pause that stretched out a person's nerves before they broke or he killed them.

Frankenstein and his master had proven they weren't the Union; he had seen sides of them no Union scientist would allow him to see without punishing him, and Frankenstein hadn't reacted to his backtalk like he'd expected either. Frankenstein gave as good as he got, but he never went further than M-21 did. And then there were the times Frankenstein didn't respond to his snipe, deflecting it with a different topic and M -21 was left floundering, unsure what to do with the anger bubbling under his skin with nothing to vent it out towards.

There was one thing left he needed to check. Then he would know if he could trust the pair or not.

M-21 went down the stairs to Frankenstein's lab. The air was clean as it had been the last time he visited, but it didn't hold the chemical smell that made his nose itch, pretending it could mask the terror etched into the Union lab walls. …There was something else in the air, something he couldn't identify.

The door to Frankenstein's main lab opened as M-21 approached it and Frankenstein was standing next to one of the large machines near the back. It was a head taller than Frankenstein and looked wide enough that several people could fit in it standing up. M-21 couldn't place what it was, even after all his years in the Union. How had he gotten it and what did it do?

"M-21," Frankenstein said, smiling at him. "What is it?"

Squaring his shoulders, M-21 walked closer. "Do you need any help around your lab or with the experiments?" Now he would find out Frankenstein's true nature.

Frankenstein's eyes lit up and M-21's stomach sank. Dammit, he'd thought-

"I do have one experiment that would require your assistance. Just one moment." Frankenstein turned around and pressed a button on the panel he was standing in front of. The machine hummed for two seconds and M-21 could hear some kind of slurping coming from it. What was it doing?

The machine dinged and a panel slid up on the machine, revealing… What.

"Now then," Frankenstein said, and M-21 tore his gaze away from it to see Frankenstein holding up chopsticks. "Taste this and tell me what you think."

"That's it?" M-21 said, taking the chopsticks from Frankenstein's hands, watching the steaming bowl of ramen inside the machine again.