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It was early in the morning when it happened. Well early in the morning by Tendo’s standards was around 4am, so most of the Shatterdome was blissfully asleep. He pattered into the communal kitchen on his floor, safe in the knowledge that he could make his coffee in peace and still have time to evacuate before the morning rush.
Except he couldn’t.
A polite clearing of a throat stopped Tendo’s humming (when had he even started?). Dr Gottlieb was standing by the kettle, gripping two mugs of some steaming liquid and looking increasingly uncomfortable at Tendo’s arrival.
The short hair on his head was sticking up at gravity-defying angles and he was repeatedly flicking his eyes from Tendo to the door, as though assessing whether or not just to make a run for it. Briefly, the doctor’s eyes looked down at his own clothes, expression suddenly shifting from being slightly uncomfortable, to absolutely mortified.
He was wearing an oversized T-shirt with little cartoon Kaijus on it. Baggy, grey trousers rested low on his hips, though they were too short on him length-wise. His feet were covered with a pair of mismatched socks and slippers that looked way too comfortable to be standard-issue.
Tendo blinked.
*Dr Gottlieb was wearing an oversized T-shirt with little cartoon Kaijus on it.*
Tendo simply blinked at it some more, as though the T-shirt itself would start explaining what it was doing on this respectable, not-a-kaiju-groupie, scientist.
*Unless...*
A dangerous grin was worming its way onto Tendo’s face as his brain finally began to catch up. Something Dr Gottlieb quickly noticed, judging by the way his face grew impossibly redder.
“It’s not mine! It belongs to New- Dr Geiszler!!” He blurted out suddenly, fumbling over his words in a feeble attempt to save face.
This had the opposite of the desired effect on Tendo, his grin only growing wider at the exclamation, “ You do realise that’s not the amazing justification you think it is, right?”
Tendo had now graduated from grinning to holding back a full-blown laugh. Dr Gottlieb only opened and closed his mouth a few times, before finally deciding that fleeing the scene was preferable to continuing the conversation equivalent of his personal hell.
“Good day, Mr Choi”, was all the poor man managed to mutter, hobbling past Tendo with the two mugs in hand and turning into the darkened hallway.
As the soft clacking of Gottlieb’s cane slowly faded, Tendo finally felt safe enough to let out the near-hysterical laugh that had been threatening to spill from his lips. Oh, he *had* to tell Mako.
Good day indeed.