Author's note: Sooo I've read a ton of stories, with the title "Five times (...) and the one time (...)". To be honest, I do not know, where it came from (Tumblr maybe? Possibly...), but I tired myself at it. Who knows? I recently watched all two seasons of Humans, aaaaand found out, that I am a huge Leotilda fan, because... well, reasons. The result is this little fic(let). Please enjoy, read, review etc. :)
Five times Leo Elster heard humming, and the one time he was heard
The first time he hears her hum is when they try to get Mia to come back to life.
She just sits there, and hums a slow, melodic tune under her nose, as she concentrates on her screen, fixated to get the woman who raised him back to the surface. She is so engrossed in her work, that Leo doubts, that she even registered him looking at her, and some part of him is even ashamed, that a tiny bit of him just wanted to figure out this girl, who sits next to him.
Then Matilda leans back, somewhat frustrated, looks at him apologetically, and he needs to turn at the same time so that she will not know about his temporary concentration slip.
The second time he hears her sing to herself softly is when they are at the Hawkins household, and her little sister asks her to watch some silly movie dragging Mia along. He is somewhat baffled about the lyrics though. He was well aware, how courtesans did their job, putting it in French did not make it more artistic whatsoever...
Nevertheless, Matilda is quietly singing with a redhead woman about diamonds, and how they are better friends for girls then time, and Leo finds it to be a solid BS...
Mia coughs slightly, and only then does Leo realize, that he was yet again staring at Matilda's profile. After that, he deliberately ignores his adoptive mother's smirk.
The third time was a full-blown singing act.
The next morning he was half awake, when he stumbled to the Hawkins' kitchen after a restless sleep, searching for a cup of coffee or tea, when he heard Mattie's voice coming from the other side of the door.
The song was about possibly a man and a woman, who danced together somewhere, and then they got into a taxi...
It's so cheesy – Leo thought – As a top hit pop-song.
But the need for caffeine has defeated his eavesdropping urge, and Leo stepped into the kitchen, determined, to get his daily dose of energy. She did not hear him enter, as her ears were covered by headphones. Mattie was still in her pajamas, without makeup, hair a mess, and she looked so young, that Leo could not believe, that the age gap between the two of them were only four or five years…
He stood on the other side of the table, almost smirking under his nose as the girl turned around, and almost jumped out of her skin.
"For God's damn sake, Leo, we already talked about this! We help you, and you try not to be creepy... what the hell?!"
"Says the one, who gave me a full performance" he bit back, fighting the smirk, that still wanted to sit on his lips.
Mattie gave him her best 'Don't push your luck' look, and with steaming mug and tablet in her hand she nested herself at the table. Leo copied her, and together they started to sip on the black gold.
"Ever thought about appearing in a talent show," he asked with a blank face.
"Shut up."
She did not sing or hum when they met again after… everything.
He did not even believe his eyes when he found Mattie's post and started to search for her. They met again on the location, they agreed to, and Leo instantly had at least one regret, he had to live with. She repaired Hester, and while she was at it, Leo could not get rid of the guilt he felt. On his defense though, the possibility of him having a chance at a normal life was at tops zero to none.
He was well aware, that Mattie at least liked him. In the past. Max could say, what he wanted, Leo was not that blind to human emotions. Not to mention, that he dared to like Mattie too. It was almost frightening how this girl was practically designed for him. But what could he offer to her? A guy who is on the run, but no biggie, he has nice blue eyes? Yeah, no.
And then…
"Hester had a lot to say when she woke up." Mattie sad with a blank face.
It was like someone would have kicked him in the guts. Three times in a row. With a reinforced concrete bar. There it goes…
But then, his genius girl had designed the ultimate sentient code, and he felt two things: Mattie's desperation when she figured out their plan, and Hester's burning hatred towards the human girl. The latter was more worrisome.
The fourth time Mattie was singing quietly came to him as a weird radio transmission. A moment it was clear, then it sounded like he would listen to it from ten feet under. Leo tried to cling to the clear words in the dark.
Why was it dark?
Why couldn't he move?
Why…
Oh. He was stabbed by Hester, he remembered. His… brain… or what was left of it… he was lying on the floor in Mattie's house… so he was at least not braindead again, one occasion was enough.
The soft singing was getting clearer with every minute. Finally, he found the right channel to tune to. With one last, final push he was out of the water and probed to open his eyes slightly.
First, everything was so bright, he closed his eyes immediately. Leo tried to groan from the pain, only to find, that his throat was as dry as the Kalahari desert.
He was in a hospital-like facility, but the absence of chlorine stench hinted, that it wasn't totally the case.
"Mr. Elster, I presume, you are awake" he heard the unfamiliar voice of a woman.
He also heard, as someone on his side shuffles around, and stands up.
"Please open your eyes, or move your finger if you hear me" the woman continued in a calm tone.
Leo tried again, but the lights were still blinding him.
"Issobrite" he mumbled.
"That is normal. We still need to do fine calibrations on the replacement parts we had to use to get you functional again. Matilda will help you to get fully awake, and she will run the startup diagnostics. I will be back shortly."
Heals clicked as she left, and one person stayed with him. As the picture got more and more clear, Leo's survival instincts started to kick in, but Mattie's voice calmed him a bit.
"No, Leo. Please. You are safe here, I promise. Dr. Morrow helped you. She replaced what Hester destroyed. Niska, Mia, and the others are also here, they just needed to get charged."
Leo slowly opened his eyes, adapting them this time. First, he only saw a Mattie shaped blur, but as his eyes could focus, the girl's crystal clear image greeted him. Mattie smiled shakily.
"Hey," she said.
Her face was pale as the walls, and dark circles were nested under her eyes. Leo still found her the best sight to wake up to after he was almost stabbed to death by a psycho bitch.
"You need water?" Mattie asked, "You must be dried out."
Leo just nodded. Mattie aided him with giving him a straw and a glass full of water. He gulped it down almost in an instant. As she put the glass back to the table, Leo cleared his throat.
"Don't tell Niska," he said, "With all the girl power craze, I will never hear the end of the fact, that I couldn't hold myself against a glass…"
Mattie let out an amused snort.
"Really? That is… like... the first coherent sentence you muster?"
Leo looked at her. He was never-ever good with words, and it seemed, that the replacement parts were in fact not in his favor regarding speaking about feelings, but he lifted his arm, and touched Mattie's hand, and smiled a tired smile.
"Do I need to say anything, or will you get it without me making a complete idiot from myself?"
Mattie tried very hard not to soften up by his eyes and failed royally.
"I will let it slide. However… once you have less special circumstances, I want to see you, making an ass of yourself. That happens so rarely these days anyway…"
The fifth time she hums is right before her Masters' entrance exam.
Leo and the others jumped by the Hawkins household to help her get ready, although, with Dr. Morrow in the committee, she had it practically in her pocket.
The world seemed to be turned out of its corners since the synths gained sentience, and the first ones who tried to mitigate the difference between synths and humans were Dr. Morrow, Laura and Matilda, joined by a small group of humans and the synths, that Max recruited...
Mattie seemed to be an emotional wreck. Leo could see with his synth side, that a high pulse and stress level was above all healthy measures, and as Mattie's whatever he was right now, he could see that she hardly slept, was buried in her books all the time, and even Mia had a hard time convincing her to go outside. And she was always humming something under her nose.
There they were, together with Leo – Mia insisted on him escorting her, as her father recently moved away and her mother was attending a case – in the university's hall, right in front of the room where the exam took place. Mattie gave Leo credit as he at least tried to scrub himself clean. Although the scruff remained, he put on a decent T-Shirt, jeans, and a brand new hoodie Laura bought him.
She was still humming some random tune and fidgeting with her hands when Leo took one of them in his.
"Why are you nervous?" he asked, "I bet you are smarter than almost everyone in here..."
Mattie cracked a stressed smile.
"Mia said something similar" she evaded the answer.
Attaboy, Leo. Just tell her, what your mother told her. Nice. - Leo thought.
"So?" he pressed.
"How will I know, they want me? How will I know, that I am good enough? What if I fail? What if..."
"What if hamsters start falling from the sky right after Niska tells everyone how much she loves humans?" Leo cut her off mid-rambling.
That seemed to shut her up for a brief moment, so the young man tried to use his time well. He did the only thing that meant I cherish you from his family, and touched his forehead to Mattie's.
"Look, you re-invented the full sentient program. You designed the program, that can shut an evil bitch down with a push of a button. Heck, you re-designed my brain. After all this, you still think, that you gonna fail?" he asked in a low voice.
His heightened senses took in a lot of data within a second. Her heartbeat, her pulse, her smell, and her instant relaxation to his hand. As she touched his face, her hand was warm, a sharp opposite to recent days.
"I see what I can do" she answered almost whispering to him.
"I'll wait for you until you are done with this. Then we go home and wreck ourselves with apple juice."
Mattie snorted.
"Really?"
Leo flashed a – what Mattie called it – charm smile.
"You know how it is... Family friendly content..."
She aced the exam.
The first time Mia heard her adoptive son hum something silly was when she wanted to tell him, that she ironed the shirt she somehow managed to convince him to wear for this occasion. Laura wanted to invite them over for a celebratory dinner and talk session that afternoon, and Mia instantly said yes. Now she was standing in the bathroom door, listening to Leo's quiet humming.
Astrid came up the stairs and tried to catch, what Mia was listening so intently.
"Oh, the little Disney prince is at it again?" she asked. As Mia's face mirrored confusion, she tried to explain it another way, "Haven't you noticed? He does this from time to time recently, when he meets We-Know-Who..."
The door opened, and Leo's clean-shaven face appeared.
"Would you mind?" he gruffed.
Astrid suddenly found something very interesting on the other side of the house. Mia, on the other hand, could not suppress an amused smirk.
"Your clothes are on the bed, Leo," she said.
"And the..."
"As well."
"Thank you."
He stood in his room some time later, already fully dressed, looking at the small box, while still humming. He opened the lid, to check on his present again. With the help of Max, he could make her a pendant, that looked like a memory card on a thin leather necklace. The word Congratulations was engraved on the back of it. Of course, it was not "real" silver, just stainless steel, but as he could remember. Mattie was never the jewelry-type of girl...
"He is at it again..." Niska said, not looking up from her book, "Is there a way to shut him up?"
Mia looked at the ceiling.
"I do not think, that we possess the ability or that," she answered.
Niska rolled her eyes. The romantic lovey-dovey stuff was sooo not her thing, but her brother seemed to be indeed happier these days...
"Do you think, that he will ask her to..."
The brown haired synth shook her head.
"Not yet. Too early."
Niska muttered something about a thousand years and stupid humans, but Mia just let it pass her with a smile. For now, she was just happy that Leo was slowly starting to find someone for himself.
"I can sense your emotions, and if you dare to start the same craze he is doing, I swear, I will turn you off!" she heard Niska from the other room.
- The End (?) -
Author's note 2: So, how was it? Good? Bad? Awful? Better than expected? :)