This chapter is actually a good length compared to the other chapters in this fic I am happy

Anyways

Enjoy cause it definitely gets interesting ha

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That night as he laid in bed, staring out his window at the blurry moon, Jongdae's mind dwelled on Luhan.

The inventor was a mystery to him, a mystery he wanted somehow to understand. How did he make Minseok so lifelike? And not just in the aspect of appearance, but in the way he seemed to have a personality.

How could an extraordinary person such as him bring a being so wonderful and intriguing, so intelligent yet innocent into the world, and then suddenly, just disappear from it?

And the most puzzling thing to Jongdae; how could Luhan have spent such a long time with this wonderful being without driving himself crazy with longing?

Then again, maybe Luhan did feel longing. Jongdae sometimes really wondered if maybe that longing and loneliness was what eventually brought him to death, despite it being such a dark thought. After all, Luhan seemed to have been a genius, and it seemed to Jongdae that most geniuses tend to be at least standing on the line between mental stability and sickness, if not far past it.

If only he could speak to him in person. Talk to the man who created such a project for himself and then left it on its own, whether he did so intentionally or not. It was odd that the guy was so imperative to the way his current life was playing out, and yet he'd never even seen his face before. He chuckled silently to himself. When he thought about it, everything about his life now was odd, and yet he didn't really mind much.

He turned himself over on his side, pulling the covers further up over himself in the chilly room. Tomorrow, he was going to try and learn a few things.

Learn a few things about a certain inventor.

*****

"Sir."

His eyes opened slowly, one at a time, and he suddenly found himself staring directly up at electric blue eyes, that were hovering over him dangerously close.

He gasped in shock at the proximity, his legs frantically pushing his body upwards against the headboard. He managed to knock the back of his head hard on the wooden frame in the process, letting out a sharp yelp of pain.

"Be careful, sir," Minseok reminded calmly but with a slight edge of scolding, and Jongdae nodded at him groggily, hissing as he moved a cold hand over the spot where he knew a bump was going to form.

"You've been asleep all day. Did you have trouble sleeping last night?" he asked him tonelessly, pulling the blanket off of his body and stepping back so Jongdae would have room to climb out onto his feet.

"A little, yeah," he mumbled, using his hands to push himself out of bed and into the vacant spot. "I don't feel too bad right now, though," he added, and he stepped forward to lead the way out the door.

He was going to ask him. Soon.

Just give him a little time first. He may not have many emotions yet, but it's best to be careful when delving into something as definitive to him as his inventor.

"So, how is Lu doing today?" he brought up idly, trudging down the squeaky steps as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes with one hand and cupped the back of his head with the other.

"He's doing well, sir. He's had a good deal to eat and drink, and seems to be content with his temporary shelter. I'm hoping that perhaps his wing will be healed enough for him to fly safely in a few weeks," Minseok reported as they reached the living room.

"That's good," Jongdae replied through a yawn before glancing over at the robot to smile at him. Minseok nodded.

"There's one other thing, sir," he added.

"Oh?"

"I'd like to check in on your previous injuries today, if you don't mind. I'm sure things are fine, but it can't hurt to make sure," he explained, gesturing towards the couch before walking over beside it.

Oh.

That was right. The whole reason he was even here in the first place was because Minseok had found him in pieces, and he had probably been in a coma for some unknown amount of time.

The fact that he still couldn't fully remember falling, or even anything before that was odd to him. It was like the life before Minseok was erased, and he was all that was left.

"Okay," Jongdae responded finally, joining the robot at the couch and laying down on his back with his head supported by the arm of it.

He felt anticipation in him like water silently filling up his lungs. He had seen the scars on his chest before, but he hadn't really paid much attention to them. What did they look like now? Were his injuries really healed, like he had simply assumed them to be?

And most impending at the moment, what exactly was Minseok about to do?

"Alright. Do you mind me ing this, sir?" he asked steadily, glancing over at the black button-up shirt that was a little too large for him. Jongdae could feel his heart caving in on itself as his cheeks heated up, but he pretended like it was nothing.

"That's fine," he managed to get out, nodding. He pushed away raging embarrassment and the urge to roll away as he watched nimble fingers pull the buttons out of their confinement and push the fabric of the shirt out of the way.

That action revealed long, purple scars on his chest from hiding, ones that he hadn't even realized the severity of. They were huge, and a slightly fading hue of violet that almost reminded him of the colors of a sunset ripped across his skin. His eyes were wide, but he tried his best to look away.

"Okay. These are doing very well. They probably won't fade completely, but in the healing aspect I'd say you won't have to worry about them, sir," Minseok told him, dragging a thumb experimentally over one of them and making Jongdae shiver.

Minseok frowned at the reaction. "Did that hurt?" he asked in slight confusion, staring intently at the marks. "It shouldn't have," he added, thumbing very lightly and carefully over one of the scars again.

"No, it doesn't hurt; your fingers are just cold," Jongdae explained in a murmur, giggling quietly.

Well, that was part of the truth.

Minseok didn't seem to acknowledge the words of his reply much, though, merely proceeding to inspect the scars a little closer before he did anything else. "You did that thing again," he commented, not stopping to make eye contact. "That laughing thing."

Jongdae's smile faded a little, but he nodded to show the robot was correct. "Yeah, I did," he agreed when it occurred to him that Minseok couldn't see him nodding.

The robot pressed down gently on his ribcage with his fingertips, making sure everything at least felt completely in tact. Jongdae looked away, breathing unsteadily as he closely studied the couch cushions with his lips pressed into a thin line.

Just a robot, just a robot...

"Breathe in," Minseok directed thoughtfully, and he obeyed, taking a slow, deep inhale, and waiting until he heard, "And back out," to let it go. He wondered, as the robot continued on, exactly what month it had been when he'd discovered his limp body on the forest floor.

On that thought, actually, what month even is it now?

He gasped suddenly as he felt the pads of fingers on his shins, pushing back the ends of the sweatpants he was wearing, and his head jerked over to see Minseok calmly blinking back at him.

"Your leg was broken as well, sir. I know that you have been walking on it without much trouble, but it's best for me to take a look just in case," he explained, and Jongdae swallowed thickly.

"Gotcha," he replied, honestly wanting to roll his eyes at himself as he let his head fall back on the arm of the couch. Minseok was seriously catching him off guard today for whatever reason, and he wished he knew why. He also wished the pain in the back of his head would go away, but he couldn't always get what he wanted, he supposed.

"Alright, sir. I believe everything has returned to normal now. You've made an exceptional recovery," he announced, pulling the leg of Jongdae's pants back down over his ankle, as well as reaching forward to button his shirt back up.

"Thank you, Minseok," he replied, clearing his throat as the robot fastened the top button. Minseok nodded, and was about to walk off to who knows where when Jongdae placed a hand on his shoulder.

This could be it. This could be the difference between getting some answers and spending every moment wondering.

"Actually, I've got one more thing too," he stated, and Minseok detected immediately that Jongdae was apprehensive about whatever it was.

His eyebrows knitted together. "Yes, sir?" he responded dutifully nonetheless, and Jongdae pulled his hand away, clearing his throat again.

Watch your wording. Be cautious.

"I've...just been wondering lately...and I know you've already told me some things about him. But I've been a little curious about Luhan, and...I wanted to know if you had any footage of him or something?" he asked carefully, nervously his lips and not able to pull his eyes away from the robot's face.

Minseok seemed to not really understand why he might ask for something like that, but of course, he couldn't be offended, (or tell anything other than the truth) so instead, he just proceeded to answer him in complete honesty. "I do, actually. I could project it on the wall for you if you would like to watch it, sir," he told him.

Perfect.

His heartbeat picked up a little; he was going to see him, this genius who was now gone. The genius he was so curious about.

"Yeah, if that's alright," he agreed, and the robot nodded in acknowledgement.

He watched in awe just then as the brightness in Minseok's eyes sparked up all of a sudden, and the blue glow projected a picture that he dragged onto the wooden walls of the cabin. He was a being of endless surprises, that was for sure.

For a few moments, there was just a soft blue blur floating on the wall steadily, and Jongdae realized that Minseok had simply begun to stop himself from blinking so it didn't interfere with the picture. Then, text came up in the corner of the screen, reading, May18th.

The blur cut out and was replaced by a shot very close to a wrinkled white shirt; another piece of clothing of Luhan's that Jongdae had been wearing regularly. It was then that he heard a voice exclaim, "Ah, I think I did it!" and the shirt moved back a few feet to reveal the person wearing it; Luhan.

Jongdae stared, wide eyed as the lovely (and quite young-looking, for someone so smart) boy grinned in triumph. "There we go. Shouldn't have put that stupid switch underneath your hair," he laughed at himself softly in his small voice, shaking his head.

"Anyways, why don't you tell me what we did today?" he suggested to Minseok, and Jongdae noticed that in the video, they were close to the same spot that him and the robot stood right that second.

"Today, we finished work on my joints to make me move properly, and fixed my camera feature, master," Minseok's voice sounded, and it seemed to be even more toneless than some of the times that he spoke now. Plus, master? Where did that come from?

But despite the things Jongdae noticed, Luhan looked so proud, almost harmfully so, nodding in obvious approval. "Good. Oh, also, just call me Luhan, okay?" he requested.

"Yes, Luhan," the name slipped off of his tongue for the first time slowly, and just a little clumsily, but the one it belonged to was still as happy as could be, a face-splitting grin spread out across his mouth.

The boy then proceeded to reach past the view of the camera in Minseok's eye to press that same button on his head, and the screen returned to a blur.

Then, in the same small white letters, May 29th popped up, and there was Luhan once again.

He was sitting on a rock out in the woods casually, and his expression made Jongdae feel the generally warm, happy tone he had to him, even if he also sensed a certain shyness that might have shown more when talking to other people and not his robot.

"Okay Minseok. How about you talk about what I've been working on since we last tried this out," he directed as he kicked his feet out childishly, his head lolling over towards one shoulder.

"Well, we've worked on some little things like the tone of my voice, breathing, blinking - which turns off when my camera is recording," he listed off thoughtfully, Luhan nodding all the while. "Also you m-"

Suddenly Minseok's voice dwindled down into silence, and it sounded like it had powered off somehow. Luhan frowned in concern.

"Uh oh...must've screwed something up in your voice," he worried out loud, sitting up from his relaxed position and running two fingers over the synthetic skin on his throat.

"Here, let's go back. I'm gonna try to fix this," he remarked, and they both jumped the couple feet down from the rock before Luhan reached forward to turn off the camera.

June 11th.

Luhan sat on the couch in this video, sunken lazily into the cushions. His face looked a little more tired in this one, but he smiled at the camera nonetheless.

"Alright. So, today wasn't the greatest day, really, but we did fix a few things, didn't we, Minseok?" he asked positively, brushing his messy hair out of his dark eyes.

"Yes, we did, master," the robot answered, and you could tell he nodded from the way the picture moved slightly up and down.

"Ah, memory error," he grumbled, rubbing one eye with the back of his hand. "Call me Luhan, okay?" he reminded, extending an arm out to squeeze Minseok's shoulder affectionately.

"Oh. Yes, Luhan," he corrected himself, and Luhan winked at him.

On June 25th, the two of them laying next to each other on the bed Jongdae now slept in nightly, they talked about adding curious behavior into his system, Minseok mentioning that he felt more interested in the world now because of it.

When Luhan asked him about it, Minseok told him that he felt he almost wanted to chase butterflies, or stay up and watch the moon at night, and the boy seemed to be right back at that happy place despite the little falter from two weeks before.

July 14th, Luhan tried the gunky, tar-colored stuff that Minseok was now able to provide for him, and he nearly cried as it went down, but he drank all the rest bravely. He chugged an entire glass of water afterwards, but giggled and thanked Minseok despite everything.

July 23rd, as Luhan cleaned some of his tools with a cloth in the basement, he explained that he'd finished programming responsibility into Minseok's system that day.

The robot in response asked him why he had chosen curiosity and responsibility as his first particular features in his personality, and Luhan stopped cleaning for a moment, making eye contact.

"They're the two things I loved most ab- well, the two things I...I guess...just...the two qualities I like most in people," he stuttered out, and went back to what he was doing as if nothing had happened.

Minseok accepted the answer without any doubt, but Jongdae wondered what Luhan was about to say the first time. There was obviously something, something that he had realized would not be good to tell him. What might it have been?

August 5th appeared in the corner.

Minseok's eyes seemed to be showing that he was at the bottom of a tree, looking up the bark of the trunk to the leaves.

It stayed like that for a moment, but then, "Okay, go," could be heard from behind him, and almost as soon as the words were spoken, he was using his strength to climb up. Luckily, it was not long before a sturdy branch was within his reach, and with a little grunt he hoisted his body up onto it, moving himself into a comfortable sitting position.

He directed his gaze downward to Luhan, who was looking up at him proudly from the ground. "You did it!" his smooth voice praised, coming up to the tree trunk himself and hugging it endearingly.

"Yes, I did," the robot replied matter-of-factly, and Jongdae snorted in amusement. Sometimes, Minseok could sound pretty cocky without even trying to.

Luhan just stared up for a good couple of moments before finally, he called up, "Could you help me get up there?"

Minseok paused for just a moment, seemingly assessing the situation with glances around before nodding. "If you climb part of it, I can most likely get you up the rest of the way, Luhan," he explained, making sure he was in a position on the branch in which he could hold a decent amount of weight without falling forward.

"Sounds good," Luhan agreed, and after only a short tentative moment, he stepped his left foot up into a little groove in the tree trunk, and tightened his arms around it so he wouldn't fall backwards. Jongdae could see him planning out each of his moves as he went from the expression on his face, the boy shuffling himself up the trunk to the best of his ability. It was slow, but still effective in the end.

Eventually, he got up to a point in which he was within Minseok's reach, and so without hesitation, the robot outstretched his arm, telling Luhan to grab hold of him.

He obeyed with a little bit of difficulty, losing his balance for just a second with a short gasp but still managing to get a good, firm grip on Minseok's arm. The robot then proceeded to use the strength in just one arm to pull the light boy up to the branch next to him with ease. He set him down carefully.

Luhan - now safe in his little spot - gaped, eyes wide and mouth hanging open dumbly. With a thick swallow, he breathed, "Damn...I didn't know I made you that strong." Jongdae thought he may have been imagining it, but he could have sworn he saw redness brush over Luhan's cheeks, even for just a moment.

"I don't think I was aware either," Minseok replied calmly, and Luhan smiled brightly at that, the expression full of that signature sweetness of his, and the breeze just slightly swept through his hair and the light made his face glow and everything seemed perfect for a second.

But then Minseok opened his mouth again, and the question that came out almost left the other boy speechless.

"Luhan," he addressed, and the boy in question just looked at him expectantly, waiting for whatever he had to say.

"What is that? That thing you do when your mouth raises up."

It seemed to take Luhan a moment to even realize what he was being asked, and when he understood, his face fell slowly. "You mean, this?" he asked quietly, and demonstrated a smile that held none of his previous sweetness.

"Yes, that."

Jongdae's heart twisted, and he stared at Luhan's face sadly. This situation was so similar to the one he'd gone through himself, and he knew just how it felt. To say the least, it was not a pleasant thing.

"That's...That means I'm happy," he offered, and his voice was starting to wobble precariously.

"Happy?"

"Yeah." He led his stare away, down towards the ground, but Jongdae could still see the slight glistening of his eyes. "Someday, you'll do it too. I'll make you happy," he promised, and with that crack in his voice and one last blink, a tear rolled down his cheek. He pressed his lips into a line, looking up towards the leaves covering the blue of the sky that summer's day.

"Your eyes are leaking, Luhan," he voiced his concern, reaching over to wipe the tears off of his cheeks, and Luhan couldn't seem to help but laugh, turning back to face Minseok again.

"I am. I'm okay, though. Sometimes us humans do silly stuff like that," he assured him, taking hold of the hand the robot was drying his tears with lightly and pressing a tiny kiss to it.

"Thank you, Minseok," he said sincerely, and Jongdae knew that if the robot could have, he would have felt how real the words were.

The next video hadn't been taken until October 16th, and Luhan seemed to be very tired, reminding Jongdae of the rather similar appearance in one of the earlier videos. He tried to insert enthusiasm into his voice as he talked about adding things related to personality to Minseok like being drawn to physical contact, going to sleep, breathing, and being warm (he didn't explain this one really, and Jongdae still wanted to know how he did it).

On November 12th, he discussed a few bugs and malfunctions he'd fixed, but didn't really smile a whole lot throughout the video, even when Minseok talked with him. As it went on, Jongdae noticed that he kept pressing his fingers to his temples, squeezing his eyes shut. It looked like he had a really bad headache, and when he did cut off the video, it seemed like he'd done it because he needed to go rest.

On November 30th, it was mostly silent.

The only noises were the breeze floating in through the open window, and the occasional soft comment one of them would make. They were laying next to each other on the couch, and it was dark outside, so it was difficult to see Luhan, but he seemed relaxed and almost ready to fall asleep. Jongdae was not exactly sure why he had the camera in the first place, but the sight was somehow calming.

After a while of a view of the trees swaying in the wind outside and the soft sounds of breathing, Luhan almost dozed off, and he realized that he had turned the camera on beforehand, and reached over to shut it off.

December 25th.

"Minseok," Luhan's voice murmured, and a view of jet black cleared away to reveal him standing over the robot and waiting for him to wake up. Jongdae cocked his head to the side at this sight; apparently Luhan had made it so he could turn on the camera while Minseok was still asleep, and then wake him up afterwards. The stare in his dark eyes looked different than usual, some sort of heavy sadness lurking there.

Minseok sat up in his usual sleeping spot on the couch, a glance towards the window revealing that a blanket of white was draped over the ground outside. "Hey," Luhan's voice whispered, and fingers brushing across Minseok's chin turned his head back to face the boy again.

"Merry Christmas, Minseok," he offered quietly, showing just a glimpse of that bright smile that had been hiding itself for several months now.

"Merry Christmas," Minseok returned, voice unaffected as always, but mimicking the low tone that his inventor was speaking in. There was a small moment of silence where they just looked at each other, Luhan's eyes a mixture of pain and adoration that Jongdae understood more than he would have expected. Then, he opened his mouth again.

"Listen, I've got to go do something, but I'll be back soon, okay? I love you," Luhan murmured, leaning himself forward to press a long kiss to Minseok's forehead. When he stepped away, his arm, enveloped by a large, fluffy sweater, outstretched to turn the camera off.

Solid white followed, and Jongdae just stared at it, not understanding what was happening. His limbs were frozen, and his mouth was glued shut.

It was dead silent for a good while, with just that completely white rectangle of light glowing on the wall, until suddenly, a strange blur swept up from the bottom of the rectangle, and it flickered out.

Jongdae turned to look at Minseok as the room returned to the dim light, and he realized after a second that the strange blur had come from tears rising up, glossing over his bright blue eyes.

"Oh, ," Jongdae muttered under his breath as he stepped over toward the robot. "What's wrong?" he asked, brushing a few strands of red hair away from his face.

"He never came back," Minseok choked out, staring at the floor with his eyes glistening, spilling tears onto his cheeks. "And it's...it's all my fault."

"What? No, of course not! Minseok..." he cooed, feeling awful for bringing back memories that could now have a painful effect. "Hey, c'mere. Remember this?" he asked, opening his arms up for Minseok to cuddle up against him.

The robot stared for a moment or two, tear-streaked face making Jongdae's heart ache before he shuffled forward to comply, letting himself be held, protected from the way his past suddenly made him feel.

"What happened wasn't your fault. You loved him as best you could," he comforted. "It wasn't that it wasn't enough. I just think Luhan...was kind of sensitive, kind of sad. That's just who he was."

Which was only part of the truth, but Jongdae didn't want to make things worse. If he was completely honest, he would tell him that it seemed like Luhan had been hiding something, and that something led to him leaving and never coming back.

He held on a little tighter. He wasn't ever going to leave him like that.

Never.

"My eyes are leaking too now."

The remark was muffled into his shirt, but Jongdae heard it loud and clear. He let out a small laugh, shutting his eyes.

"Yeah, they are. But that's okay. You gotta feel like this sometimes to make good things feel better," he reassured him, combing his fingers through his hair. "You'll be alright."

I know you will.

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wOoW this is late lol. It's actually pretty long tho

Anywayssss I hope you enjoyed this pile of me being emo about poor baby Luhan, Minseok realizing things, etc. hahaHahHaha

See you soon! c: