Penthouse 4 was a far cry from Anthurium Street. For three days, there was not a single soul seen inside the domicile, aside from the two S-Class partners who dwelled there. Meals, fresh linens, and laundry were all picked up or dropped off at odd hours, and the frequency in which they appeared left Alexei with an uneasy, watched feeling. 

“Is it always like this?” He asked, sliding into the seat across from Daniel at the breakfast table. 

“Like what?” Replied the esper, neatly picking through his prepackaged, ready-to-eat meal. 

“Do they always just come and go as they please?” Alexei clarified, lifting off the lid to examine the meal Daniel had laid out for him. 

“The butlers are here to serve,” Daniel replied, “They take care of our requests and provide us with anything we might need. Think of them as, well, a butler.”

Alexei was unfamiliar with this type of arrangement, and while Daniel appeared quite relaxed about the situation, it still struck him as an infringement of his privacy, rather than a luxury. 

“And you eat like this every day?”

Daniel laid down his fork, looking over at Alexei with a mix of curiosity and confusion. “The Center provides us with healthy, nutritious meals, perfectly suited to our roles. I can assure you that you won’t find better fuel for your body.”

"So you have this massive kitchen and you’ve never used it to cook a meal?” Alexei shook his head. It seemed almost sacrilegious to let such a useful space go to waste like that. 

“Why would I do that?” Daniel replied, his fork now scraping gently against the bottom of the meal container, “My job is to close gates. I’m not a chef.”

Alexei pushed his meal container across the table, standing up with a huff. “Well I’m not eating this. How do I call for them?”

Daniel looked puzzled, “Call?”

"The butlers,” Alexei replied in frustration, “How do I get a hold of them?”

After a brief, yet unnecessary, lesson in how to access the Penthouse’s main command panel, Alexei found himself face to face with the real Butler #4. The man nodded patiently, taking notes as Alexei listed out the items he hoped to receive. Butler #4 voiced no complaints, advising him that he’d have his order brought up right away. After meeting the man for the first time, Alexei found it a bit unsettling how spot on Daniel’s impersonation had been. The mousy brown hair, the bun, the posture– it all matched perfectly. Maybe in another life Daniel would have had a career in acting, rather than spending his days killing beasts.

Alexei turned, watching Daniel’s eyes linger on the uneaten meal. “If you’re hungry, just eat it. I’m not touching that brown mush.”

Before Alexei had even made it back to the table, Daniel had started in on it, seemingly enjoying his brown mush very much. To each their own.

"I can’t believe he didn’t quit,” Alexei mused, his thoughts returning to the butler. “What did you do to him, anyway?”

“Incapacitated” was the word Bishop Kerrigan had used to describe what Daniel did to Butler #4, but now that Alexei had laid his own eyes on the man, it didn’t seem like he’d been hurt too badly. He certainly didn't seem to be harboring too much of a grudge, either. 

Daniel wiped his mouth with the corner of his napkin and laid his knife and fork across his second empty meal container. “I froze him,” he said without emotion, “and as you can see, he’s perfectly fine.”

“Oh,” Alexei replied, “so is that something you do often? Freeze people who get in your way?”

He crossed his arms, giving Daniel a disapproving stare. He'd hoped to make the esper squirm a little, but he found that the man’s eyes were instead on his chest. Looking down, Alexei became suddenly aware of the push-up effect his crossed arms were providing to his pectorals, and he quickly uncrossed them, placing his forearms flat against the table. 

It was the Center’s fault. It was always the Center’s fault. The only clothes he’d been provided so far were t-shirts, sweatpants, and the sort of tactical pants he’d only ever seen worn by military members. They’d given him socks and underwear, as well, along with a few sweatshirts, but all in all, it was a limited bag of options. And all of them were a bit more tight-fitting than he preferred. 

“Well?” He asked again, this time with a bit more sting behind his words.

"No,” Daniel replied, “I don’t make it a habit to freeze people. Beasts? Of course, but this was a special circumstance.”

Alexei tried not to focus on the way Daniel’s mouth twitched up at the sides when he spoke. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, that’s what he was. The man was perfectly happy to play the lamb, so long as it got him what he wanted in the end. But it was in those moments, where his mouth turned feline and his grey eyes gave off an eerie glimmer that Alexei had to remind himself that any gentleness he observed was purely for show. This man was an esper, and not only that, a Merciful. He was only safe so long as Daniel permitted it. 

Alexei was saved from his spiraling thoughts by a knock at the door, followed by the appearance of Butler #4 and a cart laden with groceries.  

“What’s that?” Daniel asked, standing up from the table to take a closer look.

From one of the bags Alexei pulled out an apron, slinging the loop around his neck and tightening it around his waist. 

“Why do you care?” Alexei replied, turning his back to the esper as he laid out the ingredients on the counter, “I thought you were happy with your brown mush.”