Five days had passed since Leo came.

And every single morning, I would find him curled up asleep on the terrace.

On the first two days when I managed to give him orders to stay in the room, he stayed. But on the other days when I was too absent-minded to give him strict words, he would be gone by the time I get home from school.

Although he always come back, it makes me worry to know him—this creature who can’t speak and eats like there is no tomorrow—wanders around the street alone. What if he gets hurt? What if he’s hungry and there is nothing to eat? What if he’s cold? All the thoughts make me shudder. Although he’s just someone who happened to come by my house on accident… Leo is the closest being I have to a friend.

I lost my friends years ago. And I wanted to keep Leo around because he made me feel safe…

So today when going off for school, I made sure to give Leo the orders to stay in the room when I go to school. When school ends, I took a quick detour to an electronic shop to get Leo something. Let’s just hope he would learn to use it well.

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As a whimsical habit, I called to his name as I came home, although knowing he would never answer. Going upstairs, I was very relieved to see him sitting there hugging his knees, waiting for me. “Leo did well today,” I smiled as I pat his head and sit in front of him. “Look, I bought Leo a gift,” I took out the camera box and hand it to him, knowing his reaction would be confused. I was right.

He took the box in his hands and contemplates it for a while, before finally exchanging desperate gaze between myself and the box, since he couldn’t figure that out. I had to admit that he looked so cute when confused, and I had to stop myself from laughing out loud because I don’t want Leo to feel bad.

“Look, Leo. It’s a camera. See?” I open the box and took a black pocket camera out, showing it to Leo. The dark metal gleam bright under the room’s light, and hesitantly, Leo reach a finger out to touch. “No, Leo. It doesn’t hurt you. It takes pictures… see?” I turn on the camera and directed it to his face as he stayed still waiting for the thing to do something. The camera zoomed and focuses on Leo’s face, before shuttering and captures a picture of Leo. I showed him the screen as he admires confusedly. Had Leo never see his own reflection?

“That is Leo!” I exclaim, making him look up to me. “Yes, that is you, that is Leo. This thing captures pictures… so Leo doesn’t have to scribble things that Leo likes,” I hand him the camera as I finish my sentence, and he excitedly take it in his hands.

We spend the rest of the afternoon taking pictures, as I taught Leo basic commands in the camera. I made the right choice choosing a very tough camera. Leo gets so excited, too excited that he accidentally bumps the pocket camera here and there as he took pictures of things he like around the house. Most of them are food, and he even took a picture of our leftover pizza dinner, after eating half of the pan himself.

When the night goes darker and it’s time to go to sleep, I tuck Leo in to bed with a new set of orders.

“Leo,” he looked up to me, his dark brown eyes still sparkling with all the excitement as I cover him with a blanket. “Take pictures of your days, okay? Take pictures of what matters most, and take pictures of those you love most. I worry about you when you’re gone… so please tell me your story using the pictures.” He nodded repeatedly and reached his hand out to the nightstand for his camera, before pointing the lens to me and took a picture of me.

He refuses to let go of the camera later on, and he slept with it in his arms, like a baby. He still have this innocent look as he sleep, and he still move around a lot in his sleep.

But his eyes doesn’t show fear anymore when I called his name.

It made me happy as I went to sleep, dreaming about Leo and his new camera.