To Be a Scientist's Minion

Scientist Meets Minion

Hanabi stared blankly at the strange boy who had removed her from her nest and was apparently trying to steal her experimental bunny.

"Are you trying to steal her?" she asked sternly watching apathetically as he spluttered and waved his hands around in denial. However, despite his strong denial, he had yet to give her back her bunny or gave any indication of wanting to do so causing her to frown darkly at the panicking boy.

"Name," she interrupted his ramblings curtly. Honey froze mid-sentence to stare at her uncomprehendingly.

"Eh?"

She sighed in irritation. "Give me your name," she deadpanned impatiently.

At this point Honey was rather confused. Did this girl not know who he was? "Honey? Eto, my name is Haninozuka Mitsukuni," he replied stating his full name when his more common nickname garnered no reaction.

Hanabi hummed and stood from the couch and wandered back to her desk. Lifting a pile of papers and dislodging a small bundle of drying herbs, she revealed a standard school line phone. Casting the confused blond one more contemplating look, Hanabi rolled her violet eyes and lifted the receiver and dialed a long since memorized number.

The phone had barely begun to ring when the click of someone answering came.

"Nabi-chan! It's so rare for you to call!" a boisterous voice rang out. Something about the voice was strangely familiar to Honey, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. "What's wrong Nabi-chan? Do you need another order form?"

Hanabi sighed at the other's energy. "No, one of your students is here. He tried to take B16," she deadpanned completely ignoring the intruder's bawling denials.

It was silent on the other side for a minute before the person on the other side responded, tone a stark contrast to his previous one. "Give me a name Nabi-chan. I'll have them detained and questioned by the school security teams."

"Haninozuka Mitsukuni."

"Eh?? Haninozuka? Nabi-chan put me on speaker phone please," the man instructed. Hanabi hummed in agreement and glanced at the nervous third-year. Pressing a button, she set the receiver on the desk and gestured for Honey to come over.

"Haninozuka-san? This is Chairman Suoh, can you hear me?"

Honey blinked in surprise. It was Tamaki's father!

"Yes sir, I can hear you."

"Good, now can you please explain to me what you are doing in laboratory #2? And why Akanamiyaki-san believes you to be stealing from her?" the chairman asked steadily. Honey sighed and eyed the stoic girl standing across from him behind the desk and went on to explain his situation and the events that led them to this moment.

"...I just wanted to put her on the couch since I didn't want her to feel uncomfortable on the floor there. I really didn't mean to do anything wrong," Honey ended his explanation there.

"Why do you have B16?" Hanabi demanded eyes still narrowed in suspicion.

"B16? Oh, you mean this bunny?" Honey suddenly laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well, you see, when I was looking for you in the lab, I accidentally knocked her cage over and the latch broke. I didn't want her to get hurt by accident, so I figured I would hold on to her until I found you or Matsuoka-sensei came back." He bowed his head in apology, "Gomen ne Akanamiyaki-chan."

Hanabi sighed but held out her glove-clad hands. "Give her back." Honey did so without protest and placed the mini lop bunny in her hands. The young scientist cradled the bunny to her chest for a moment and checked her over for injuries before raising her up to look the bunny in the eyes.