A/N: Sorry in advance if it feels like this chapter dragged on ; __ ; I'm terrible at introductions.  

Hybrid Child. That’s what he is.

Henry Lau: that’s the name his creator gave him. He, as well as all other Hybrid Children were created for the sole purpose of pleasing males. They’re well-known among private circles of wealthy, middle-aged men as the embodiment of male fantasy.

Like a mirror, their bodies are designed to reflect the degree of the owner’s affection and translate that into growth. Because of that one main function, they do not require any other necessary thing in order to survive. Love is the key to their survival.

A Hybrid Child has the ability of four out of the five senses a human has: sight, hearing, smell, and touch. These four senses were enhanced to be ten times stronger than any human. Taste is an unnecessary attachment; the Hybrid Child would lose purpose if it had to worry about consumptions of food and liquid to obtain strength.

Through first-hand experience, they learn how to adapt to human society. By observing and studying normal human behavior, they can reciprocate that. Depending on the atmosphere of a situation by reading human facial expression and body gestures, they’ll react without thinking. For example, if the atmosphere is lively with laughs and friendly conversation, they’ll react with smiles and laughs in return. Reaction doesn’t require feeling.

Henry’s head snapped to the left to read the clock on the wall. It read 6:59am. He stood up from the chair of his desk to prepare himself for the usual morning routine. He tidied himself up in front of a full-length mirror, checking for any possible wrinkles or stains on his clothing. He wore a simple outfit: black jeans with a black hoodie. Perfect.

He took a step out from his room, careful to close the door behind him to avoid causing a disruption to the rest of the household. Directly across from his room is another bedroom belonging to Amber, his master.

As he walked in without knocking, he mentally went down a list of possible things Amber might do this morning. She’s a spontaneous girl who always manages to come up with something different to make Henry reevaluate his actions.

Now at the side of her bed, he looked down at a blanket cocoon. He swiftly pulled off the blanket in one motion to uncover Amber peacefully asleep in a ball formation. He glanced to her pillow where her head rested and saw a red light blinking underneath--a laptop. He sighed.

"What were you doing last night?” Henry waited for a response from the knowingly awake Amber.

"Sleeping..." she answered, while pulling the blanket back over her head.

She had dark circles under her eyes. Obviously she didn't sleep a wink last night.

"You have school today."

"I know, but one video just led to another and then another, and then all of a sudden I saw the sun coming up," she explained in a matter-of-fact tone. Her words came out as muffles from underneath the covers.

Can't be helped, he thought. This isn’t the first time she’s done this. She often disregards the importance of sleep and how much it affects her as a growing teenager. Henry grabbed the brush sitting on the nightstand, and then took a seat at the edge of her bed. Amber lowered the covers a bit to peek at him in curiosity.

Henry pointed toward the floor between his knees, signally Amber to take a seat there for him to brush her hair. She nodded with a yawn, obeying without any complaint. She stumbled out of bed and onto the floor, crawling to the space he pointed at before taking a seat.

He gently brushed the tangles from her short, boyish hair. The tips of his fingers analyzed her hair to be very soft. Henry once learned that ‘soft’ is a comforting feeling that make humans smile and happy. Amber yawned a second time, now resting her head on his left knee.

Amber Liu has been Henry’s master since she found him in a garbage dump 10 years ago. He was originally bought by a wealthy, male lawyer around the age of 60. He didn’t do much with him besides have him sleep with him after long days in court to relieve stress. That’s a Hybrid Child’s main purpose: to please males.

After a year, the lawyer sold him off to one of his colleagues. Henry can recall him saying that he got bored of him and bought a newer model to satisfy his needs. Different models have different functions. The newer models nowadays are even more human-like that it’s incredible, yet frightening.

This new male was a lot more harsh with him. He often came home from work drunk, and had Henry satisfy him almost every day. If he had the ability to bruise, he knew that that colleague would’ve been to cause plenty of them. And just like the first, he grew tired of him. He didn’t bother returning him or selling him to another interested buyer. Instead, he threw him away.

Henry’s perfectly remembers sitting out on a pile of garbage for days, until finally Amber found him. She immediately looked at him with worry in her eyes. She probably thinks I’m a human just like her, he thought when exchanging contact with her. A young girl her age most likely had no idea what something like him was. Through her eyes he probably looked like a lost kid with no where to go. His lack of growth had him looking to be the same age as her at the time.

She carried him home on her back in the heat of the summer sun. He remembers seeing her sweat drenched shirt, and she spoke to him with kind words. “Don’t worry! I’ll take you home with me. I don’t know if my parents will let me keep you, but I promise I’ll keep you safe as long as I can.”

Henry had lost his ability to move and speak. A Hybrid Child grows and strengthens by the love of their owner. He received no love from those two men. He was unable to grow at all during the time he was owned by those two. At the time he thought, there must be something wrong with me. Maybe I’m malfunctioning and some screws are loose.

He had always thought that it was only natural for his masters to show affection towards him. It wasn’t until he met Amber when he realized it takes a lot more to receive someone’s love.

When she returned home with the lifeless toy on her back, her parents disapproved right away. That was when she learned what Henry really was. Three times her parents tried to auction him off. They were well aware that Hybrid Children are worth a huge sum of money and it would be a waste to let such an opportunity go by. Still, Amber came to save him each time. Eventually her parents stopped trying to sell him after seeing how much their daughter wanted him. THe memory of the eight-year-old Amber tightly holding onto the limp me as she boldly protested to her parents to let him stay will forever be engraved in his data.

It took him four years to start moving, and another year to start talking. Slowly, but surely, he started growing by her affection towards him. His past owners failed to have him grow because their love was impure. But Amber...her love was pure.

An unusual liquid feeling began seeping through through jeans, making him snap out of his thoughts. Amber had fallen asleep and was now drooling on his knee. He set the brush down, just now noticing that he had been brushing her hair non-stop for about five minutes now. He lightly lifted her up by her arms, making her stand up on her own. She groggily rubbed her eyes.

“It’s your fault I fell asleep. Whenever you brush my hair it feels so relaxing,” she grinned, happily.

“Yes, yes. Now go get ready for school. Don’t forget to wash your face and brush your teeth,” he nagged her. Though he knew that he didn’t have to nag her about such simple things, he couldn’t help but do anyway.

As she got ready, Henry took the initiative to double check her weekend homework. On her desk were scattered pieces of paper (most of them having doodles on them). He rummaged around the papers and picked up the ones that looked like school work. Eh?

Amber walked back into the room, wearing her school uniform and not looking like she just spent the whole night watching videos. “What is this?” he raised the paper up in the air for her to see.

“My homework,” she answered, purposely averting her eyes.

“Why is it blank?” he continued.

“Well…”

“No excuses!” Ever since the start of her last year of high school, she’s been slacking off more than usual about school work.

“Sorry,” she apologized, while giving him a deep bow. He sighed in frustration. She was never that interested in academics. Though somehow she seemed to always pass without doing her homework. But besides the point, she has to do homework at some point!

“I’ll do my work when I get home today, Henry. I promise.”

They both knew that she always keeps her promises. Ten years ago she promised him she would take care of him, and ten years later she’s still keeping her promise.

“...fine,” he quickly gave in.

Amber smiled. The sight of her smile had him react with a smile directed to her.

When Henry was with those two men, he always wondered how come their kind of affection toward him wasn’t love. Somehow after being with Amber for so long--though the concept of love was still far too abstract for him to understand--one thing was for sure. One thing that he couldn’t explain, but just knew: I love her more than anything.