A/N: I've read the chapter a few times but still found some typos and grammatical errors. If there are still any left feel free to tell me :)

There aren’t a lot of peculiar things to see on a military base. However it must be said that the Special Forces military base of Mato Planet is quite unique for a military base and it does have some additional things to it. It spans over quite a bit of land. One could say that it has the size of a small city. Only the military and the government are allowed into this city which is assured through a metal fence and quite a few guard towers. On the base there are wide fields and shooting ranges between barracks and quite modern buildings made of steel and glass. The base houses training grounds, living quarters, bureau buildings, schools, laboratories and quite a few other special departments. Everything is quite plain and functional on the military base of Mato Planet.

What Yongguk didn’t expect to see was a toddler crawling around the front porch of his HQ. Well sure there are women on the base but if they had children they left them at the nursery or with family members while they worked.

He furrowed his brow and walked closer hoping his eyes were playing a trick on him. He wished with all his heart that it turned out to be one of Youngjae’s robots. But no matter how close he got the child remained a child.

Meanwhile the toddler had stopped crawling in the dust noticing the inquiring gaze. With wide eyes it stared at the tall presence. Suddenly a broad grin broke out on its face and it worked its way up on its chubby legs. Finally standing it wrapped the arms around Yongguk’s legs and plopped back down on its .

“Appa!”, it squeaked, nearly making the other jump.

Appa? That made no sense. There was no chance that he was a father of a child since he never left the military base and had close to no interactions with people outside of his group and the higher-ups. And he definitely wasn’t the father of a child with curly blond hair. There’s no way that his straight black hair will result in blond locks. All his ancestors had straight black hair as well.

The frown etched itself deeper into his face.

“Yah! Himchan, get out here!”

“Why don’t you just come in?”, a raspy voice answered.

“Himchan, now!”

“Yeah, yeah, coming. Was the meeting that bad? Did they blame you for another crime or something?”

The door banged open and the commander stood in the doorway ready to rant on as he saw the toddler. Himchan closed his mouth and stared quite a while at this peculiar scene. Finally he said, “Is he yours?”

“As if.”

“One does never know.”

This earned him a scowl.

“Yeah, yeah, okay”, Himchan held up his hands relenting. Slowly he made his way over to Yongguk and squatted down so he was on the same level as the toddler.

“Hey buddy, what’s your name?”, he gently asked smiling softly.

The toddler scooted back to hide behind Yongguk’s legs all the while still holding on to them with his short arms. With his big eyes he peeked at Himchan and after a few heartbeats a sweet mumbled “Junhong” was heard.

“Junhong! What a beautiful name! Do you know where your eomma is, Junhong?”

Junhong shook his head wrapping his arms tighter around the leader’s legs and nuzzling his cheek into the fabric of Yongguk’s trousers.

“And your appa?”

The toddler decided not to answer and instead squeezed Yongguk’s legs even tighter earning a hiss and a frown.

“Aaaw, isn’t he cute”, cooed Himchan, not caring that he was scowled at for his comment.

“How about we go inside?”, Himchan suggested holding out a hand to the toddler. However Junhong just scooted even closer to his self-appointed appa. The commander started smirking and Yongguk was close to hitting his commander senseless. Feeling the leader’s bad mood Himchan plucked Junhong off his legs and scooped him up in his arms. It took only a few moments for the toddler to start squirming around and making grabby hands at the older of the two. Yongguk didn’t even notice as he was on his way inside. He only got stopped when whines were heard. Turning around he was faced with a chubby angel who was on the verge of starting a crying fit. Out of reflex he took him in his own arms shushing him softly and bobbing him slightly on his shoulder on his way to the living room leaving a surprised Himchan behind.

No sooner had the peculiar couple entered the living room a mop of brown hair swivelled around. “Boss, we have no cheesecake left in the fridge! Can we raise the budget to get some more? Oh, and Jae had to stay at the tech quarters for a little longer. He said something about hackers outsmarting the system. But I strongly suspect that Youngjae had his fingers in that one. You remember a few days back, he said something about getting exercise. Oh, you’ve got a kid? Leader’s or Commander’s? Your’s, I would presume. I must say he looks nothing like his appa. But he’s cute. I’ll give you that.” It took a few moments for the older ones to register everything the younger said. Meanwhile a broad grin has stretched over the latter’s face while he cooed at the toddler.

Himchan grimaced. “Uh, Daehyun-“

“He’s not my child” Yongguk rumbled.

Junhong wrapped his arms around Yongguk’s neck and squeaked, “Appa.”

Daehyun snorted.

“You’ve got a problem, Boss. It’s your statement against his. And Midget gets brownie points for cuteness.”

“Don’t call him Midget”, Yongguk growled. “His name is Junhong.”

Daehyun laughed and strolled into the kitchen. “You already named him?” Still laughing he started to rummage in the fridge and grabbed some ice cream since there was no cheesecake left. Yongguk followed him and sat Junhong gently down on the kitchen counter.

“No, he told us so himself.”

While Daehyun started searching for a spoon Junhong stared curiously at the ice cream and stuck his hands in it squealing surprised at the cold. It didn’t take long for tears to pool in his eyes as the cold started to hurt his little hands. Immediately everyone turned around and Yongguk scooped him into his arms without hesitation going over to the sink to wash his hands with warm water.

“Yah, Midget don’t just eat my ice cream!”

“Don’t call him Midget!”

“But Boss, he is a midget.”

Yongguk glared at the younger.

Himchan clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “Don’t fight in front of the child. He’s going to learn all your bad habits. Yongguk don’t scowl or he will become gloomy as well. I know you love children, so smile. Daehyun don’t scream at Junhong he’ll cry and also don’t call him midget. Or else karma is going to bite in your and he’ll be way taller than you.”

Daehyun laughed. “Okay, okay. I didn’t mean it in a degrading way. Jeez, you two are so protective. Are you sure that you two aren’t his parents?”

Both the leader and the commander opened their mouth to protest as the youngest of their group walked into the kitchen stopping as soon he saw so many people assembled.

“Appa”, squeaked the toddler and stretched his little arms to show Yongguk his wet hands. The latter smiled absent-mindedly and helped Junhong to dry his hands.

Himchan quickly waved his hands and shook his head. “He meant hyung. Right Junnie, you wanted to say hyung?”, Himchan tried to explain to Jongup. Daehyun snorted. Jongup looked to the leader who shrugged his shoulder and said: “Hyung.” The youngest nodded and didn’t think further of it, moving to the cupboard getting everything ready for his chocolate milk. Silence filled the kitchen as everyone stared at Jongup surprised that he didn’t question the whole scene any further. It was only broken as a loud voice shouted, “I’m home.”

A few seconds later the last one of their little group barged into the kitchen.

“Oi, what is an android making in our kitchen?”

“Why is everyone calling Junhong names? First Midget, now Android.”, Himchan cried.

“Commander, I think what Jae wants to say is that Junnie is an android”, Daehyun interjected now looking all serious.

“How?”, Yongguk grumbled.

Youngjae scoffed. “I have eyes. I can see it.”

When everyone just stared at him as if he had grown a third eye on his forehead he sighed and moved forward brushing away Junhong’s curls at the nape of his neck revealing a minuscule cable connection.

“Well, and there are also some other obvious signs for blind people.”

Daehyun whistled. “Midget is a robot? I didn’t notice at all. He’s still cute though. But why would someone build a robot in the form of a toddler? To work as a spy? Because he does look innocent enough for that but toddlers won’t be let in on state secrets. Maybe he’s here to monitor us!”

Everyone turned their head to Junhong who didn’t understand all the grown up stuff at all and just stared back with his innocent eyes and crawled into Yongguk’s arms.

“No”, Youngjae replied, “he’s a new project by the robotics department. I’m just surprised it worked. It’s my first time to see such an android.”

He stepped closer to the toddler to get a better look at him.

Youngjae continued, “Robotics wanted to make an android which is just like every other living being. They wanted to make a robot who grows, eats, sleeps, has a conscience et cetera. He is supposed to fit in completely as a living being here on Mato Planet. Not cloned but completely artificial for special assignments where natural imperfect soldiers aren’t enough.”

…

The group had decided to bring Junhong back to the robotics department the next day since it was late already. In silence they prepared a light dinner while letting the information sink in. When everyone sat down to eat Junhong waddled over and tried to climb onto the leader’s lap. Yongguk had to smile at the little robot’s failed attempts and small whines. He took pity on the small angel and lifted him on his lap earning a few hesitant frowns from the others around the table.

“Tomato!”, squealed Junhong happily as he saw the bowl of cherry tomatoes. Yongguk gave him one and the younger one ate it enthusiastically.

“That is so wrong”, Himchan suddenly interrupted the silence. “I don’t know. It’s just strange. He’s a robot he shouldn’t eat and act like a living being. I don’t know what to think because he’s just so innocent but he’s not real.”

Junhong seemed to notice that the things said about him weren’t of the nice sort and the happy expression instantly turned to a sad one.

“Stop it, Himchan”, Yongguk grumbled hugging the small figure on his lap.

“But-“

“I mean it. Didn’t you hear Youngjae? He has a conscience like us and thinks like us. Just because he was artificially made doesn’t give us the right to treat him different from us. What makes us better than him? What’s so wrong that he can’t eat just like us? Isn’t it worse that you treat him normally and then when you find out he’s a robot you treat him differently even though it’s still the same toddler we found on our front porch?”

Himchan opened his mouth to retort however from his expression it was clear that the leader had already won. Silence enveloped them as they let the words sink in.

“I’m sorry Junnie”, Himchan apologised and ruffled the toddler’s hair. When the cutlery is picked up again the soft clinking is the only thing heard for a while. It only got broken as Yongguk decided to hand Junhong a cherry tomato. The younger cheered.

“Appa!”

And a wide smile lit up his face.

The leader surprised the others by chuckling at the toddler’s antics and calmly saying.

“Hyung. Not appa. Hyung.”

“Damn, he’s got you wrapped around his little chubby fingers, boss.” Daehyun whistled.

The soft smile was instantly whipped of the face and replaced by a stern look directed at the cheesecake-lover. That had everyone break out in soft smiles that turned into soft coos as Junhong grabbed a few cherry tomatoes and held them up to Himchan who automatically turned his baby-mode on.

“Are those for me? Thank you, Junnie.”

Junhong beamed.

“Eomma!”

“Hyung!”, Himchan nearly screamed to drown out the roaring laughter, “call me hyung.”

The commander had an extremely mortified expression on as everyone laughed tears and complained of stomach aches. Even the leader grinned broadly as he patted the commander’s shoulder.

Youngjae wheezed between his laughter,”well, if Bang leader is the appa and the commander is the eomma…” He trailed off.

“Jae, take cover! Boss is so going to murder you”, Daehyun guffawed.

Seeing that the whole team was having fun the leader decided to let it pass this time and joined their laughter while patting the confused Junhong’s hair.

The rest of the dinner passed a lot less strained as everyone accepted the happy gurgling toddler. After a hearty meal everyone decided to get to bed early so they could go to the robotics first thing in the morning. It was then that another problem arose.

“Where is Junnie going to sleep?”

The whole group turned silent at Himchan’s question.

Daehyun snickered, “Do we need to get a baby cradle for Midget?”

“We’re so bad at looking after toddlers”, Himchan cried desperately, “we are so miserable parents.”

Youngjae snorted.

“Yeah, what did you expect? It’s not like we’ve got a lot of toddlers around here. And why would we need a cradle? The android isn’t going to stay for more than one night anyways.”

And again silence filled the room.

“He’s going to sleep in our room”, Yongguk decided, scooped the toddler into his arms and made his way to the room with Himchan trailing behind him.

“Good night. And I hope he doesn’t cry during the night”, Daehyun snickered while the others went to their own room.

Youngjae grinned.

“I don’t think he’ll cry since he’s going to sleep with his eomma and appa.”

It only took a few seconds for all the youngsters to get to their rooms and going to sleep way earlier than they’re used to.

…

The next morning everyone woke up refreshed and Himchan also had a few more photos in his collection with a sleeping baby cuddling up to their cold leader. Everyone got dressed quickly and didn’t bother with a long breakfast. They arrived way earlier than most engineers at the robotics department. But they found their way regardless because of Youngjae who seemed to know his way around the tech building as if he’d been there thousands of times although he wasn’t stationed there. However they were quickly spotted by the engineers.

“What are you doing here?”, they were quite rudely asked by one of the engineers. Coming to a halt they turned around and were faced with a red haired individual. Youngjae broke out into a wide grin.

“Heechul-hyung! We’re here to visit you.”

“You’re a terrible liar, brat. Just spit it out, are you here to cause more trouble?”

“Nope, one of your experiments turned up at our door.”

Heechul turned around and was faced with a cold stare and a little toddler in the arms of the group leader.

“Woah! That creepy gaze! Look at someone else! Oh isn’t that Zelo.”

Heechul extended his arms to take Junhong, but Junhong just gurgled happily at the sight of the engineer and moved himself deeper into Yongguk’s arms.

“Yeah, well.” Heechul shrugged and turned around to lead them deeper into the maze of bureaus and engineering labs. “We were already wondering about Zelo’s whereabouts but I already told Professor Lee that Zelo is very capable of making his own decision he won’t do something stupid. We from the engineering department made sure of that. But that Lee Sooman is quite convinced that Zelo is a failure. But I must say he turned out good. At the moment we’re trying to give him memories about childhood and family, so that he’ll have something to define himself.”

The engineer animatedly told the scientist ignoring the rest of the group.

“Mr. Kim, why are you bringing outsiders here? I hope you’re quite aware that strangers are prohibited to enter. And out of all you could bring, you’re bringing criminals?”

The whole group froze and turned around to be faced with an elderly man glaring at them. Youngguk’s expression turned from neutral to cold as he stepped forward to challenge the man who dared to insult his group. But before he could open his mouth Heechul stepped forward.

“Professor Lee, they brought Zelo back.”

The Professor stared a while at the toddler.

“Take him, Mr. Kim. And you can leave now.”

Faster than expected the group found themselves relieved of the toddler and were led out of the building by a lot more engineers than necessary.

“They didn’t even look properly at Junnie. How are they going to look after him?  They didn’t even explain anything at all and didn’t even let us speak. They just took him.” Himchan ranted worriedly as they arrived back in their living room.

“I hope they aren’t going to hurt him.” Jongup murmured and Daehyun agreed with a nod.

Youngjae sighed.

“No worries”, he assured, even though he didn’t sound so sure himself, “I asked Heechul to look after him.”

It was strange. They hadn’t known Junhong for long and a great part of that time they didn’t particularly come close to him because of him being a robot. But the toddler somehow occupied their minds the whole time after they gave him away.

“Midget was quite a cute robot”, Daehyun stated from his place on the couch.

There were some agreeing grunts before they all fell silent again.

“Himchan was totally smitten. If he stayed Junhong would have been pampered by his eomma”, Youngjae snickered, trying to loosen the mood.

However Himchan just sighed.

“Boss wasn’t any better”, Daehyun murmured. Then he suddenly stood up. “I need some cheesecake.” With long strides he left for the kitchen.

“Gosh, why are we all moping? It’s not like Junhong is dead! Surely the robotic department knows how to raise their own experiment”, Youngjae exclaimed and stomped off. A few moments later a loud slam was heard as the scientist banged his room door close. However it only took a few seconds and he was running back excitedly into the living room with a phone in his hands.

“Heechul is calling”, he announced happily.

Daehyun came out of the kitchen to join the group. “There’s still no cheesecake.”

Are you having your mood swings, Jae?”

The latter glared at his best friend and accepted the call.

“How’s Junhong?”

“Hey, Youngjae. How’re you doing?”

“Answer the question.”

“Well, he is quite fine, I would say, even finer than he should be. What did you guys do to him actually? He’s calling for his appa the whole time. Zelo didn’t use to do that.”

“Why’re you calling him Zelo? His name is Junhong”, Himchan snapped.

“Well, hello to you too.”

Heechul made a pause for effect.

“Because he’s project Zelo”, he answered then as if it was common knowledge. “Well back to the problem at hand. What did you do to make him so obsessed with family?”

Youngjae held up a hand as Himchan wanted to snap back.

“We didn’t do anything in particular. He just appeared on our doorstep and appointed Yongguk as his Appa-“

“Yongguk? Your non-smiling boss?”

“Exactly”, Yongguk grumbled.

“Well, anyways”, Youngjae continued. “We just kept him with us until we brought him back this morning. He ate dinner and breakfast with u-“

“You ate together?”

“Yes, why not?” Youngjae frowned.

“Well, the only thing I ever did together with him was play and I got scolded for slacking by Professor Lee afterwards. Anyways, we haven’t got extra cooks for our subjects and we can’t bring him to the cantee-“

“You can.” Yongguk growled.

“Pardon?”

Youngjae sighed. “What our boss meant is that Junhong is quite capable of eating.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, we made him that way, but he can survive without the food, we just have to load his batteries.”

“You made him like everyone else and then you don’t even give him the same rights?” Yongguk growled.

There was silence on the other line, then a sigh.

“I see your point. However Project Zelo isn’t finished yet so we’re going to keep him at the engineering laboratories at all times and so we might have to cut back on some privileges until the Project is finished. I’ll try to sneak him some food. Maybe I can go and eat with him. That idea isn’t that bad…” The last few sentences were only mumbled softly as Heechul thought to himself.

“Anyways, he’s doing well. I’m going to call you when something new comes up. Bye.” Only moments after he said goodbye cheerily he cut the call and left the group with a beeping phone in the otherwise silent living room.

...

They didn’t hear anything from Heechul for over a week and somehow the daily routines picked up again and it seemed as if the situation with the little robot never existed. However suddenly one morning they were surprised by loud knocking on their door.

“Who could that be? Nobody ever comes over to our house.” Himchan made his way over to the door. No sooner had he opened it a frantic engineer stormed through the hallway into the living room where everyone was gathered.

“They want to terminate Project Zelo.” Heechul puffed as he tried to catch his breath.

“What?” Himchan exclaimed as he walked back into the living room. Yongguk stood abruptly up and locked his gaze with Heechul’s.

“Professor Lee wasn’t happy with Zelo’s growth. He said that it wasn’t planned that Zelo would search for a family. He said it was a miscalculation in the programming. So he wants to terminate the project and restart programming Zelo.”

“But isn’t that what he wanted? That Junhong will be like us? Doesn’t every kid search for his parents?” Youngjae frowned.

Heechul shook his head. “He wants a perfect artificial being suited for our line of work. Attachment to other people isn’t needed as character qualities. The engineers only gave him the memories of a family so that his personality could be formed.”

Heechul started to pace around the room.

“I tried to convince Professor Lee that we could still keep Zelo as a soldier. However he said that Zelo is a miscalculation from the engineers. A failure. He doesn’t need a failure staining the department’s records. I can’t believe him! Zelo is such an innocent being! How can he just say that he’s a failure. Zelo has the knowledge and abilities of the whole robotics department.”

“That makes him a threat to the robotics department if Zelo is used at another department.” Youngjae thrummed his fingers on the table while thinking. “What can we do?”

“Can’t you just take him?” Heechul asked.

Yongguk furrowed his brow. “So you want us to kidnap him?”

“Well, those are some harsh words. I just thought that Junhong should go somewhere where he can live like everyone else, where he isn’t an experiment.”

“So you just go to the special force which everyone labels as the criminal & failure force and ask them to raise a toddler?” Himchan snorted.

“We aren’t criminals or failures”, murmured Daehyun with a dark expression. Youngjae put his hand on his friend’s knee and squeezed it before turning his inquiring gaze on Heechul who just smiled sheepishly.

“He likes you.”

Yongguk raised his eyebrow at the engineer. The latter just shrugged his shoulders.

“Sorry, I just don’t know what to do.”

Himchan sighed. “That’s obvious. But have you ever thought about the whole kidnapping thing? We are in a closed of military base. It’s basically a prison. They know everybody’s moves in here. There’s security everywhere. If they don’t catch us during the act they will find us at the end. And we already have a bad reputation. How are we going to explain to them why we stole a department’s subject?”

“Hyung? Can’t we just ask the higher-ups to add Junhong to our group?” Jongup asked innocently.

Heechul broke out into a wide grin. “That could work! After all Professor Lee called Zelo a failure.”

Himchan snorted. “And what do you want to tell them? That they should add Junnie to our group because he’s a failure? It’s not like he has all the knowledge of nearly everything programmed into his mind. And it was hard to get you all out of your respective situations how do you expect me to convince them to let another one join us? They’re going to love your suggestion. You barely made it out of prison to walk into the next one. They’re surely going to suspect us of planning some sneaky attack. They always think that we’re planning something. We’re criminals and failures after all.”

Heechul let out a nervous laugh. “It was just an idea.”

“When are they going to wipe out Junhong’s existence?”

Heechul winced at Yongguk’s wording but did nothing to correct him.

“In about two hours.”