Jongdae watched with sleepy eyes, head resting in his arms as Lu hopped around.

He didn't really have too much space in the makeshift cage of sticks that Minseok had built the other day, but he didn't necessarily seem eager to escape.

The bandaging was still wrapped around his wing tight enough to keep it bound to his side, but not too tight. Jongdae didn't really think it looked like his wing was hurting him, but Lu was an animal, so in the end it was tough to tell.

When would he be able to fly again? Jongdae had to wonder, even if he knew it would be sad to see him go.

Minseok had just fed him (with a little assortment of things he'd found out in the woods, apparently) and when thinking about it, Jongdae couldn't help but consider the last time that he'd eaten actual food himself, which he realized after a moment, he couldn't even remember.

Yeah. That was right. He hadn't even had a taste of anything other than that thick, mucky stuff in what felt like forever.

His eyes drifted over to the window, and a weird feeling came over him. The thought made him long for something with a rich taste, something he could bite down on.

It wasn't to say that he didn't feel satisfied when it came to health or hunger; whatever that tar-colored stuff was actually worked very well in sustaining him. It was just that he missed the taste and texture of real food.

And who could blame him?

Minseok walked back into the room just then, as if on cue, and a wide grin spread across Jongdae's face without him even realizing it.

It took Minseok a second to see the oddly giddy Jongdae sitting there with Lu at his side, but when he did, he raised an eyebrow at him, taking a glance around the room. He could not seem to understand what Jongdae found so amusing.

"What is it, sir?" he prompted, feet planted in their spot.

"I've got something in mind that might be fun," Jongdae explained with glee, pushing himself upright onto his feet before stretching the lethargy out of his limbs with a quiet grunt.

"Fun...alright," Minseok responded halfheartedly, and there was a weird look on his face as he nodded. Jongdae figured he just didn't know what fun meant; he made a mental note to make sure to explain later, when the robot could experience it for himself.

"Would you like to explain your idea, sir?" Minseok requested as he padded over to one of the couches, picking up the jacket that was laying there in case they were to be heading outside; the weather was starting to become a little more chilly each day, and Jongdae was rather sensitive to temperature.

"Well, I was thinking maybe if we went and collected some things up, we could try to make a meal or something. The stove still works, right?" Jongdae asked him, taking a glance over at the kitchen that hadn't been used in who knows how long.

"Are you feeling hungry, sir?" Minseok questioned, now holding the gray jacket by the top and looking disconcerted. "You shouldn't be."

"Not necessarily. I just like how food tastes is all," Jongdae explained, just shrugging and turning around so Minseok could drape the jacket over his shoulders, which the robot picked up on after a few seconds, coming over to wrap it around him loosely.

"I see. Well, if this is something you want, I suppose it could be...'fun', as you said before," Minseok replied, trying to casually use the word in the same context though it was odd for him.

Jongdae laughed very quietly to himself as the robot jogged back into the kitchen to grab something, not wanting to put Minseok down but thinking he sounded a little silly.

"C'mon, lets go. I want to try and find some fun things to cook," he urged him excitedly, shrugging his jacket on further and bouncing towards the door.

"Okay, sir. Please be careful, though," Minseok reminded him, following him out the door with a basket in hand and into the mist beyond.

They headed out side by side, Jongdae sticking his hands in his pockets at the feeling of the chilly air weaving through his fingers. He sighed contentedly, though he was starting to get this weird nagging feeling that he was forgetting something, that there was something he should be doing today.

It never even crossed his mind that it was Thursday, and technically the day he planned to add the next emotion to Minseok.

"Sir, I don't know that there will be very much to collect in terms of food at this time of year," Minseok commented, glancing around at the environment and then down into the small empty basket.

Jongdae nodded silently, almost as if he was in agreement, but continued on, and Minseok just followed him obediently.

It was silent for a while, their footsteps echoing against the trees and into the distance. Jongdae looked over at the robot with the basket in hand walking beside him, and for a reason he would never really know, he pictured him skipping, giggling and frolicking with the basket swinging back and forth.

"Gay," he snorted quietly to himself.

"Gay? As in joyful, or homoual, sir?"

Jongdae hadn't realized he'd heard, and he nearly choked on his own spit, glancing over at him like a guilty child caught stealing some cookies. "Both," he replied, letting out a small laugh at himself.

They walked together underneath a cloudy sky, taking close looks at their environment. Their eyes were peeled in search of something they could pick, or maybe even hunt, but as the time rolled on, they weren't really finding anything worth taking back.

At one point, Jongdae did find a bunch of dark colored berries that he thought they could use somehow, but unfortunately, Minseok chided him calmly, identifying them as poisonous and shooing his hand away.

There didn't seem to be any sign of animals either. Not that Jongdae thought he actually had the skill to catch one, necessarily. He just thought it was odd.

They were starting to get a little worn out, the late afternoon gradually rolling around, and as time went on, the darkening clouds were starting to cause Minseok to worry that it would rain.

"Sir, we should really go home," he fretted, blue eyes looking up in concern at the sky. "I don't want to risk me malfunctioning, especially because I might not be able to lead you back."

Jongdae sighed in disappointment. Minseok did have a point; getting caught in the rain had the potential of being nothing short of a disaster for the two of them, and the thought (the imagination of the worst case scenario, that is) almost made him shiver in dread.

"Yeah, you're right," he agreed sadly. "Let's go."

Minseok nodded apologetically, turning around and starting their route back to the cabin. It was silent between them again, but this time, it felt more gloomy. The only noise was the cool wind that was beginning to brush through the trees, making Jongdae rub his hands together for warmth.

That feeling of forgetting something was coming back. He racked his brain, just trying to even get some sort of idea what it might be, but for some strange reason, he just couldn't bring it into clear thought.

They had been walking for a pretty good while underneath the ominous sky when suddenly, they both heard a loud rustle echo into the air from close by.

They halted, growing very still, and Minseok's expression quickly morphed into what looked like concentration and concern. They listened closely.

There it was again, louder this time - a rustle of leaves.

A rustle that was definitely not the wind.

Jongdae in a frightened cold breath, and on instinct, Minseok took action immediately, grabbing his wrist firmly and quietly taking them both down to the ground behind the bushes.

They sat down in the shadows amongst the green leaves, and Minseok looked to Jongdae, whose eyes were wide in alarm, and he raised his index finger to his lips, signaling for him to be silent.

The robot turned around, leaning forward in the direction that they'd heard the sound to look out through the leaves. He watched as the leaves of a large, fallen tree some fifteen feet away shook with the movement of something coming through them. It was something big, and he couldn't quite tell what it was yet, but it was coming out of the shadows not far away.

But then it fully emerged into the open air, and his lips dropped open when he realized it was the large, looming figure of a bear, sniffing at the ground. "Oh, no," he whispered almost inaudibly to himself.

What is it? Jongdae wanted to demand, his heart skipping a beat, but he had vowed himself to be silent, refusing to put them in danger.

A few more silent moments of thick tension, and suddenly Minseok whipped around, looking Jongdae right in the eyes.

"Let me take care of this, sir. Stay on your hands and knees and crawl back that way," he ordered, pointing in a direction where the tall bushes continued, and Jongdae could stay hidden.

His tone indicated that he wasn't going to take no for an answer, but even so, Jongdae couldn't help being scared that Minseok might get seriously hurt. "W-What? But what about you?" he whispered hysterically, his eyes big and sparkling with fear as he gripped onto Minseok's wrist like a plea to stay with him.

But to Jongdae's horror, Minseok's eyes were robbed of their stunning pigment, lighting up into a fiery white, and he forcefully shook Jongdae's hand away, his expression remaining stern. "It's not safe. Go," he growled firmly but quietly, his teeth clenched, and Jongdae was completely frozen in shock, afraid to even breathe.

Minseok looked angry.

He looked wild, in a way that Jongdae never thought a machine could, and in that moment, he was afraid of him.

He finally obeyed, feeling hopeless, frustrated, and just plain scared but still making sure not to be reckless, and remaining as noiseless as he could be as he crawled back to safety.

He stopped once he was far enough back in the bushes, heart pounding against his chest, his panting creating rapid puffs of fog in front of him, and he wished he could see what was going on.

What was Minseok going to do? Was he going to be alright?

And on top of that, what on earth had just happened to him?

He hugged his knees to his chest, trying not to hyperventilate. He bit down on his lip, watching his breaths cloud out from through his teeth in front of him and trying his best to calm himself down.

It'll be okay. It'll be okay. He knows what he's doing. Everything's going to be fine.

It was so hard to convince himself that, but that was all he could really do right now. He was helpless.

Please let everything be okay.

He listened very closely, trying to pick up on any possible sounds from Minseok or the bear, and he thought that he may have heard footsteps, but he wasn't sure. What was happening? Had he confronted the animal?

Time ticked on and on, and Jongdae became more and more terrified by the minute.

It was too long since he'd left. Far too long. Something had happened. Something was wrong.

He cursed under his breath. He wanted to check. He wanted to see, but if he got up, he risked making things even worse.

There had to be something wrong.

"Sir."

He gasped loudly and almost girlishly, covering his mouth with his hands as he looked up to see Minseok standing over him in the bushes.

A shaky sigh of relief left his lips at the sight, and he found comfort in the fact that Minseok's eyes glowed a familiar ocean blue again, instead of the white flames that had flickered there before.

"You're okay?" Jongdae asked the robot with a slight stutter as he was offered a hand to help him up off the ground. He earned a calm nod as he slowly and carefully accepted the strong grip, raising himself onto his feet again.

"What happened back there?" he questioned timidly.

"This is not what the bear believes to be its own territory, I presume. Luckily, it was not protective, so I simply led it in the other direction, and then headed off," Minseok explained, picking a burr out of Jongdae's chocolate-colored tufts of hair.

"It just followed you? Just like that? It never seemed scared of you, or like it wanted to attack?" Jongdae asked softly in amazement as Minseok continued to tidy his hair and clothes up. "How did you even?..."

"It remained calm and obedient. I am quite the enigma, if I do say so myself. There were other things I could have done, but I believe Luhan programmed me to be as harmless as I can while still being rid of threat," he remarked, turning around and leading Jongdae out of the bushes and back onto their desired route.

Or at least, he thought that was where he was going to go towards, however, the robot seemed to be heading in a slightly crooked direction.

"Where are you going?" Jongdae asked him, zipping his jacket closed as he felt the wind pick up.

"Well, if there's a bear in a place where there's also water, there is reason to believe there may also be fish, sir," Minseok explained calmly, continuing to walk on, and Jongdae realized as he trotted over to catch up that they were headed in the direction of the creek. "You wanted to cook a meal, correct?

"Yeah. That's right.Wow, that's...really smart. You think there could be fish there?" he questioned him, starting to get a little excited.

"That is my hope, sir."

Jongdae grinned with enthusiasm, despite the wonders still lingering in his brain.

Wonders about an emotion that seemed to be there, but were unmentioned by both Minseok and his inventor.

*****

"How do you turn this thing on?" Jongdae asked, examining the stove to try and find something that would heat up the burners. He didn't want to try and press anything, in fear that he would break it, or do something to that extent.

He chuckled to himself. The guy that could make a machine express human emotions couldn't even figure out how to turn on a stove.

"I believe Luhan said it was the little dials with the white numbers on them," Minseok recalled from the living room.

"Gotcha," he replied, trying out turning the dial on the right up to seven. And, like clockwork, after a few moments, when he held his hand over the right burner, he felt the warmth radiating up into his fingers. "Alright, that worked," he informed Minseok, who brought the small wicker basket holding two fish into the kitchen.

They'd gotten pretty lucky all in all, to say the least.

Without a question, though, the task of catching the fish itself was a disaster; they had both agreed, Jongdae laughing all the while, never to make the mistakes they'd made again, despite each one paying off in the end.

Once he'd set the basket down, Minseok proceeded to take the fish out, and strip them of the undesirable parts. Jongdae watched in fascination, complimenting him quietly on his skill and speed and wondering just how Minseok knew about so many things and how to deal with them. Ultimately, though, he kept that question to himself.

Minseok then got out a pan, and they eventually managed to cook both fish, even though they were sticking to the pan a bit, and the robot couldn't eat the half that would be his if he could (somehow Jongdae was almost positive he'd be eating everything without any leftovers).

When they were finally finished, after checking to make sure it wasn't undercooked and letting it cool, Jongdae dove in, tearing off a generous piece and taking a bite without hesitation, eyelids dropping shut at the feeling of his teeth sinking into the middle.

It wasn't necessarily ideal when it came to flavor, but he was far too blissed out at the fact that it was the feeling and taste of actual, real food to even notice.

He finished the piece happily, wiping his hands on his jeans as he turned to Minseok, who was patiently waiting for the verdict. "It's awesome," he told him, grinning widely and leaning forward to give him a small, gracious hug. "Thanks for this."

"Of course, sir," Minseok replied, leaning his head into Jongdae's neck. "It is my duty."

Jongdae sighed happily, pulling away to look at his innocent face.

There really was no way for him to have a moment where his heart wasn't going to beat out of his chest, was there?

*****

It was getting late again, and Minseok had fallen asleep on the couch the way he always did. Jongdae, having finished his meal a while ago, felt very full now, but he was beginning to feel a different type of need now that Minseok had dozed off.

His need to understand was sinking in again.

Earlier that day, Minseok had seemed to show legitimate anger. His eyes, his clenched teeth, his tone of voice. They all seemed to point straight to anger, but neither Luhan nor Minseok had ever mentioned it being in his system.

Jongdae wondered if he was even right about that. And if he was, was there some other documentation of it? Luhan seemed to like to have somewhere to express his progress and feelings about it, so perhaps anger was a secret emotion that he'd added without Minseok knowing, and he'd written about it somewhere else.

Come to think of it, a while back he had seen a sort of thin book underneath the clothes in one of the dresser drawers, but had disregarded it; it was the morning before he'd added sadness to Minseok, and so he had been too distracted then, but now he thought that it could possibly be something useful.

He made his way up the stairs on his tiptoes, being as quiet as he could. Maybe this could help him understand what had happened today. He hoped so, at least. He's not going to lie; it scared him. A lot.

When he did reach his room, he headed straight over to the dresser, pulling the top drawer open and pushing away the clothes from the bottom right corner of it.

And there it was, exactly the way it had looked when he'd seen it the first time. The same dark gray book, with a long piece of red string wound around it, sitting in the bottom of the drawer.

He reached in and wrapped a hand carefully around the book. He then cautiously unwound the red string, wondering why Luhan may have put it there in the first place but deciding it might not be good to throw it away. He draped the string over the edge of the drawer once it was unwrapped, surprised at how long it actually was.

Then, slowly, he opened it up, and sure enough, round, bubbly handwriting filled the page that could only belong to Luhan.

He silently thanked the universe for being so kind to him, and began to skim down the first page. He looked for anything that may have to do with anger, deciding that he'd read the rest of the journal later.

However, Luhan seemed to be a much more emotional and poetic person in the way he wrote, which Jongdae didn't really think came across in the videos. It caught his attention quickly; he always referred to Minseok lovingly, and Jongdae thought he had a very endearing way of speaking in general.

He also noticed something else quite strange as he flipped through the pages; he seemed to keep referencing things from the past, things that were never in any of the videos and didn't seem to make sense. Not only that, but his words hinted that there was something big that had happened some time before, something sad, based off of the way he talked about it. He never came right out and said what it was, though.

It definitely wasn't anything he'd ever mentioned in the videos, but it seemed extremely important to him. Important enough that Jongdae truly questioned how much of Luhan he really knew based off of those videos.

He was a good deal through the journal now, and he was so distracted trying to figure out what Luhan was really talking about that it totally caught him off guard when he came across what very well could be exactly what he'd been looking for in the first place.

This morning, I think I saw a fox scurrying around outside through our window while I was sitting in the living room. It made me think about everything that happened to us a couple years ago.

I made a decision. I added something to Minseok's system that I think is better not to tell him about. It's only to keep him safe if something really bad does happen. I just can't lose everything I've worked so hard to get back.

This sets off a red alarm in his head. Was this related to what happened to Minseok when he'd seen the bear?

I didn't really want to put anger before other things, which probably wouldn't surprise anyone. It's pretty much the cruel emotion that destroyed everything and brought me here in the first place. But if he can protect himself when there might be danger, I'll never have to feel that pain.

Yes. This is it. Just as he thought.

Anger was there, and to Minseok, it was a secret.

For some people, that would be enough for satisfaction; they were right, case closed. But Jongdae was more curious than people of that sort. He read on.

I installed a sort of defense mode, one that only turns on when he might have to protect the two of us from harm. He is very strong, so I don't doubt his ability in the slightest. I did design it to try and find a plan with the least amount of violence possible, though. Along with that, I added a setting that makes his eyes glow white when it's activated - something as a warning for me. I want to know what's happening in a time where it might turn on.

Anyways, it's getting late. Until tomorrow.

Jongdae nodded to himself in understanding, yawning as he read the last sentence. Minseok had sensed imminent danger when he'd seen the bear, and so his "defense mode" had activated, lighting his eyes white and causing him to be short with Jongdae. But, because of the way Luhan had designed it, he hadn't attacked the bear, because he didn't need to.

Luhan and his creation truly were fascinating.

On the ending note of getting late though, Jongdae realized that that was also the case at the present time, and he should probably get some sleep. He grabbed the string from where it hung halfway over the drawer, and was about to wind it back around the journal just like he'd found it when suddenly, he heard a flutter that sounded like it came from laminated paper.

He looked down in confusion, seeing that the book was facing with the pages towards the floor, and because of that, some things had fallen out and floated down next to his feet. He furrowed his eyebrows, bending down to get a better look at them.

But when he realized what they were, his breath caught in his throat.

---

MwuHahahahhAhhaa cliff hangers. At least the chapter's long tho :') I don't know why I'm suddenly writing such long chapters for stuff but I love it lol

Anyways, hope everyone liked it! :) See you soon! c: