The Patchwork Laboratory's ventilation system hummed gently, the sound echoing throughout the entire building. The night was still young, yet the rooms and hallways were littered with shadows and barely lit by small overhead lights. It's an unorthodox house for a child to be raised in, but homes never needed to be built with the same function in mind, did they?

Stein carefully walks up the stairs, peeking over the pile of books in his arms at the next step to make sure he doesn't suddenly fall. He knew that he could be rather clumsy at times, and he'd hate to get a concussion just because he wasn't being careful.

Eventually, he makes it up the staircase and onto the second floor of the lab. Before you came along, the upper half of the lab was very scarcely used. Stein would only go up to sleep, so most of the space there was unused. Now, however, it's been recycled into something more family friendly. A safe space for you to be in while he conducts experiments on the more dangerous side.

At last, he reaches the door to your room again. Stein shifts the pile of books to one hand and enters the room.

“Alright, my little monster, which book should we read?”

He drops the pile onto the bed, where it lands with a soft thud. There’s at least a dozen to choose from, and all of them are an inch or two thick. Kind of overkill, for a bedtime story…