Summary: The shadows under Tao's eyes were darker and spread further than Takeo had ever seen them.

Set between season five and six.

(Lalalala, *whine about titles* the usual)

Assist and Rest

By Dark Ice Dragon

"Tao..." Takeo sighed, looking over Tao as the other man chuckled, ruffling the back of his head with a hand. The shadows under Tao's eyes were darker and spread further than Takeo had ever seen them.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Tao said, smiling. "We're nearly done with the school."

"I know," he said. They would probably be completely finished the next day. He paused, looking away for a second. "The children are getting worried about you."

"Ah, heh." Tao's smile dimmed a little. "You tell 'em I'm sick?"

Takeo nodded. "They think you're recovering slower than the rest of us." He'd always wondered if the children would catch on that they always became 'ill' at the same time, but since they shared the same house, maybe it wasn't so strange.

"That's good." Tao stretched, groaning. "But that's a big enough break for me - I need to finish making the last of the cameras." He hummed, rubbing his neck. "That, and I have to plan where exactly..." He shook his head. "Afterwards." Tao lifted an arm and waved at him. "Later."

Takeo watched Tao walk off, studying him. They'd been working hard over the last couple of days, rebuilding the school, but for him and M-21, that was all they had to do; Tao, on the other hand, still had other jobs piled on top of that.

Tao seemed fine, but Takeo had also seen him keep his chirpy attitude in tact when he hadn't had any sleep the night before, so it could have been less that Tao wasn't affected by what was going on, and just that he could hide how much it affected him.

"Hey," Takeo heard behind him, and he turned around, seeing M-21.

He nodded his head in greeting.

When M-21 saw his face, the other man raised an eyebrow in question.

Takeo let out a long breath, glancing in the direction of where Tao had went. "He's been busy."

M-21 nodded, frowning. "There's nothing we can do to help?"

Takeo pursed his lips slightly. They didn't have the expertise to make the cameras Tao was making (especially since Tao had designed them himself), but it was essentially the same as when they helped Frankenstein around his lab - they didn't know everything or the exact specifics of what Frankenstein was doing (and never would) but they could still fetch the instruments he needed. In the very least, they came down to make sure he ate and slept.

"We could ask," Takeo eventually said.

"Yeah."

They went downstairs to one of the other lab rooms Tao had converted. The door was slightly ajar and when Takeo nudged it open, there were bits and pieces of machinery scattered all over the floor, Tao sitting at a workbench, hunched over something in front of him.

Takeo eyed the floor as he started to make his way over to Tao without stepping on anything. At a glance, it seemed like the room was an entire mess, but Tao's room was exactly the same, and now that Takeo was looking properly, it seemed like there were mounds of certain types of parts clumped together.

"Tao," M-21 said when they were half-way across the room. Tao didn't seem to have noticed their presence.

"Huh?" Tao jerked up, swivelling his head towards them. He blinked, then grinned. "Yo, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Takeo answered. "We were wondering if you wanted any help."

Tao's eyebrows rose. "Me?"

"There's no-one else in the room," M-21 remarked dryly.

Tao's grin turned wry. "You never know," he teased, leaning back in his chair. "But no, I don't need any help with anything."

"Not even to bring you anything?" Takeo said, looking around the room. It was bigger than the ones they used to spar together, most of the space used, only small clear paths that didn't have mechanical pieces sprinkled over it.

Tao paused, tapping his fingers on the table. "Well, maybe." He tilted his head up at them. "If you're sure?"

"We are," M-21 said, nodding.

Tao beamed at them and then hummed as he stared up at the ceiling. "Hold on, I'm gonna have to print off a map to show you how I plotted off the room."

Ah, so he was right - Tao had some sort of system to this.

Now, if he could work out what system Tao was using in his room when practically every surface was covered with something...

xOx

"Okay, I need three pieces from J7 and one from O13," Tao called out. Takeo started heading towards the O-section of the room, counting off every number as he passed them. He and M-21 had split the room in half, only picking up the parts Tao needed from their side to make things more streamlined instead of checking who was picking up what part from where every single time Tao needed something. But they'd already helped Tao make enough cameras already that Takeo was starting to be able to guess which pieces Tao was going to need next.

"I think I only have about five more left to make," Tao mused as he started tinkering with the camera innards again once he had the parts he needed. Huh. So it shouldn't take them long to finish completely then. It had already been a few days since he and M-21 had started helping and Takeo could only guess how long it would have taken Tao if he'd been doing it by himself.

"Thanks," Tao said, smiling at them both. "It's gone a lot faster since you started helping."

"It's fine," M-21 said, his arms crossed as he leaned on the wall next to Tao's table.

"And once we're done with them," Tao continued, his gaze going inward, "we can start on the sensors."

...Wait. There was more?

They must have made a sound, because Tao glanced between them, blinking. "What did you think the rest of the parts were for?"

Takeo gazed out at the piles of parts left - some piles were a lot smaller from what Takeo had first seen them, others completely used up, and then there were others that had been completely untouched. He'd assumed that those piles were what Tao had brought down just in case he'd needed them, but if everything in the room was going to be used... Shit.

Tao clapped his hands, stretching. "Hokay, breaktime!" He stopped, just as his stomach rumbled. "Or maybe it's time to get something to eat?"

Uh. Takeo pulled out his phone and when he saw the screen, he grimaced. "It's two." They'd started as soon as they'd gotten home, Miss Seira coming down to tell them dinner was ready at some point. That had been their only break.

"Eat, then sleep," M-21 said, pushing himself away from the wall.

"Mm," Tao said, nodding as he stood up. "Sounds like a plan."

xOx

Frankenstein's fridge was never empty. The only time it came close to that was when the children had come over and had eaten most of the snacks, but even then, there was usually still about half of the contents left.

"All riiight," Tao said as he rooted around inside, "who waaants…patbap?"

"Are we snacking or having a midnight feast?" M-21 asked, his eyebrow quirked at the four plates already sitting on the counter.

"Hey, there's three of us," Tao said, waving a hand over the fridge door before bringing back in. "Not to mention, the way the Boss keeps feeding us, you'd think we're still growing or something."

"He's over eight-hundred years old - maybe he does think that."

Takeo smiled at that as he pulled out enough plates for them from one of the cupboards. They probably wouldn't get to bed until three at this rate, but even then, it would be enough rest.

xOx

That night, Tao placed his hands on his hips as he surveyed the construction room in front of him. "Hm, we could keep this as it is, or we could rearrange some stuff so it's just easier, now that we've got some more room to manoeuvre."

"It would make things faster if we brought the piles closer to you, wouldn't it?" Takeo noted, eyeing everything. The difference was only a few steps, but with the number of sensors Tao was going to make, those extra seconds added up.

"Yup!" Tao hummed again, drumming his fingers. "I'll make another plan of where the best place is for where everything should go. It'll only take me five minutes."

Takeo and M-21 nodded, and then M-21 tilted his head at the piles, frowning. "How do we move them?"

Tao snickered as he sat down at his table. "How do you think I got them down here in the first place?" Before he or M-21 could answer, Tao waved to a door on the other side of the room. "The stuff you need is over there."

xOx

"And that is that!" Tao said, grinning, rolling his shoulders and then stretching his hands high above his head. "That was the last sensor!

"They'll still need to be installed, but that's going to be a lot faster than making all of them from scratch," Tao continued, still holding his pose. "But we can start on that tomorrow. First-"

"Food," M-21 finished, his lips twisted up in a wry smile.

Tao lowered his arms, grinning as he flexed his fingers. "Of course," he purred. "I think I smelled the Boss cooking something earlier on - maybe there's still some left in the fridge." Tao finished his statement with a jaw-cracking yawn.

"Or maybe you should sleep first," Takeo suggested, eyeing him.

Tao made a face, wrinkling his nose. "Eeh, after I eat; it won't take long, and it's way better to go to sleep with a stomach full of warm food than waking up hungry, you know?"

"If you fall asleep in your plate, we're not waking you," M-21 told him.

While Takeo's lips twitched, Tao declared, "Hah, I won't."

When they got upstairs, it was still late enough that nearly everyone else had gone to bed (they'd heard Boss working in the main lab when they'd left their room) and they had to turn on the living room lights.

Tao flopped onto the sofa as they passed it, using his arms as a pillow. "You know what I like," Tao said muzzily, yawning again.

"Everything?" M-21 said as he opened the fridge.

"Yup. Boss' and Miss Seira's cooking is great, no matter what it is."

There was no disagreeing with that.

It was after they had chosen two plates that Takeo noticed Tao's breathing had changed. He peered over to where Tao was and smiled.

Tao hadn't really moved at all since Takeo had last looked at him, but his breathing was deeper, his expression less lined.

"Huh," M-21 murmured. "Guess we won't need more than this."

"No." Takeo considered Tao's sleeping form as M-21 started re-heating the food. While the food was in the microwave, Takeo left the living room to fetch a blanket from one of the nearby cupboards.

Bringing one back, he draped it over Tao, who mumbled something, but didn't wake up, which said just how tired he must have been. Takeo lifted Tao's legs and moved them so they weren't hanging over the sofa's arm. They could have woken him up and directed him towards his bedroom but if they did that Tao would have probably insisted on staying up.

They'd let him have his nap, heat up some food for him when he woke up and then they'd go to bed.

I'll just say that Frankenstein probably expected either M-21 and Takeo to help him, or Tao to rope the rest of the household to help him. XD