Hello! After my last Human's drabble Katie Katherine messaged me and we spoke of a fic of Leo being sick and, of course, Mia looking after him. We exchanged a few ideas and I promised I'd give it a go, and a few months down the line, here I am. It may not be exactly as you have in mind, and I'm sorry if it's not what you wanted/that good, but...yeah, I just really wanted to try and get it out to you.

No beta, any mistakes my own. The riddles I've used are not my own, I'm not that imaginative, they're ones I found online, and one is actually two mixed together.

It wasn't long after she was first created that Leo got sick for the first time- or, at least, her first time. The boy was still getting used to her just as she was to him, though her programming made it much easier for her to like him, to care for him, as she was supposed to. Leo, on the other hand, wasn't at all keen on the substitute for his mother, no matter how ill Beatrice was.

"I don't care that she can't look after me, she's my mum and you're not."

It was a Friday, she remembered it just as she was supposed to, at 1:42am. She was sat on her stool in the family kitchen charging (but still aware of her surroundings should she be needed) when she heard a stumble. Just a small bang that could easily have been missed or ignored. And that was what she did, going back to her charge a few seconds later. Minutes passed in silence until a toilet flushed upstairs. Nothing out of the ordinary, just Leo or David taking a midnight break. It was when she heard the toilet flush a few more times within a short while that she became unsure. At first she wondered if it was even Beatrice, finding fun in the act of repeatedly flushing, or Leo going through a similar faze of immaturity as he sometimes tended to when bored, upset or angry. He had been a little closed off that night during tea, and being unnaturally quiet at bed, going when asked as a matter of fact.

The toilet flushed a fifth time in 40 minutes, and Mia made the decision to investigate- afterall, it was one part of her programming, to make sure everything was ok in the household. Walking along the landing and toward the toilet she noticed Leo's bedroom door ajar, the bathroom she had been heading to closed. Curiosity spurred her into his bedroom, the light flicking on under her finger. She took in the room, the toys left on the floor, the books opened or bookmarked on his desk, the mess of his bedding from where he'd got up and left it and, the small puddle of sick laying near his pillow.

"Oh Leo." Mia whispered.

Turning on her heel she walked the rest of the hallway to the bathroom, lightly tapping the wood.

"Leo? It's Mia. May I come in?"

He didn't respond and she wasn't entirely surprised, not only did he dislike her, if he was ill she knew he wouldn't want her near him. He would want his mother, possibly even his father, but Mia knew both of those were out of the question.

"Please Leo, your mum's asleep and your dad is...working, I think. Come now Leo, let me in."

A few seconds and the lock to the bathroom clicked. Light flooded the landing and Leo's small frame silhouetted in the doorway. He was hunched over slightly, his arms around his stomach. Straight away Mia saw how pale he was, how his eyes were both red from tears and black from exhaustion. Around his mouth was little flecks of sick that he hadn't managed to wipe away. She didn't think twice when she walked past him, ripped some toilet paper from the holder, wetting it slightly to wipe at his mouth. He stood where he was, face blank as he looked at her, just letting her wash and wipe at his face.

"How many times have you been poorly?" She asked, feeling his head and checking his throat.

"Four." He said, his voice hoarse already. Mia remembered counting five flushes, and the accident she had seen in his room- so six times then.

They stayed in silence for a minute more as she brought a fresh cloth for his face, already he seemed to be warmer than before.

"What else do you feel sweetheart?" Since her 'creation' a short week before, she had been experimenting with human 'pet' names. She had heard David call Beatrice a number of them, aswell as people on the television that had been on at various times of the day. 'Sweetheart' was her first attempt with Leo.

"Hot." He swallowed hard. "It hurts."

"What does?" She wiped some hair from his face as he pointed to his stomach, his palm laying flat on it and pressing slightly as if to squash the pain. "OK. We'll get you sorted, what do you say?"

A flick switched. Suddenly Leo turned stormy and pulled away from her. "No. Go away. I don't want you. Go away Mia."

"But Leo, you're poorly."

"No. I don't need you. Get out."

Mia knew when to leave the fight, and she knew that staying would just cause Leo more aggravation that neither she nor his parents needed. It wasn't that he was a misbehaving child, but he did have tendencies to lash out when worked up.

"OK. OK." She placated, her hands in the air as she backed off. "I'm going, ok? You know where to find me if you want me."

Nodding, she walked away taking one last look over her shoulder to see him getting a drink from the sink. Her biggest worry was him choking, or getting weak and falling. Whether he liked it or not she would keep checking on him, listening out from her position and glancing into his room every hour or so.

Sitting down to charge, she allowed herself to power down ever so slightly, the world going darker and her senses calmer.

x

Through her senses she felt the ever so light sensation of the air beside her warming up. She felt a draft creep over her skin and a similar puff of air blow her hair. A breath, a slight waver in it indicating fear or anger or tears. A gentle touch on her arm brought her fully conscious, her eyes opening and her systems regaining full capability.

Looking to her side she saw Leo's form, darkened by the night, but him nonetheless. She didn't speak, letting him do all that he wanted to do, she wasn't going to push him. Absentmindedly, she noticed it was an hour later since she had been with him, his voice shouting at her to leave.

"Mia?" He asked, his voice set low in a whisper but still so very hoarse and gritty.

"Yes Leo?"

He didn't say anymore, for he simply began to climb onto her knee, curling around her own body and tucking his head under her neck. She could feel his heart racing, his limbs shaking, and his temperature through both his and her clothes. Placing one hand on his back, to soothe and to hold in place, she brought her other up to his head.

"Leo you're so warm." 36 degrees C, close to fever levels. "Have you been sick again?"

She knew he had, she could smell it. He nodded slightly in her arms.

"Mia I don't feel very well." He began to cry then, burrowing his face in her chest.

"OK. Sssh, ok." Rocking him gently she decided that being in her lap in the kitchen wasn't the best place for him so she picked him up after unplugging herself and made her way to the front room. "We're going to lay you down, and I will get you a nice drink and some medicine. I'm just going to be in the kitchen alright? Call me if you want me hmm?"

He nodded and she walked away, satisfied that he was ok on his side on the couch. She knew he had only come because he was feeling so low, but she couldn't help but feel a little victory at how he had turned to her in the end. Getting some cold water and medicine she also grabbed a small carton of orange juice and rich tea biscuits- just simple biscuits to give him some sustenance. As she placed them on a tray to carry through she heard him moan from the couch, and a small whimper of sound. Instantly she grabbed a tub and ran to his side in time for him to empty his stomach again into the tupperware. Mia rubbed his back as he wretched again and again, just bile coming up from the absolute lack of anything left in his stomach.

He cried, his hands around his stomach and knees bent tight to his chest. "Hurts. Mi..Mi...hurts."

"Shhh, shhh, I know darling I know." Another pet name she had heard, but 'Darling' didn't suit her either, not with Leo. "I'm going to bring the medicine ok? I'll be one minute."

She was at his side again instantly, holding the amount of the sweet pungent looking liquid on a spoon waiting for him to swallow. It may not work, if it was a bug he had picked up or a touch of food poisoning, but with any luck it would bring his temperature down a little and ease some of his stomach pain. The orange and water was slowly drank too, small amounts every few minutes and after another bout of sickness.

All night she sat by his side, holding the tub when he was sick, pouring some more water into his mouth, and wiping his face with a cool cloth to keep his temperature down. It did spike at one time, reaching 39, nearly 40C, making her panic that this may be more of an issue that she thought, but after a short time it fell again and levelled out around 38C. He never did manage the biscuits but she didn't push him at all, only comforted him and stroked his hair. She passed some time telling him stories, or playing small games with him to distract him. They found that 'what/who/where am I?' was one of their favourites, followed a close second by riddles that Mia read from a book.

"Alright...what has an eye but cannot see?"

An eyeroll from the young boy. "Durr, a needle."

"Correct. What weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks?"

Leo coughed, his throat constricting before he smiled and said. "Neither, they both weigh a pound."

"Cheeky." She smiled and booped his nose whilst scrunching her own. "Ok then...I don't have lungs or a chest but I need air. I am not alive but I grow. I don't have a mouth and I don't like water. What am I?"

"Fire."

She moved the book, inspecting every section of it with wild and over the top actions. "Are you sure you're not cheating young sir!? I think you might be!"

"No, I'm just that good!" He smiled, the biggest smile she had seen from him since their meeting, a true and happy smile despite his circumstances.

"Oh are you now? I'll make sure I find one you don't know." The pages flew through her fingers as she turned them over, the pair of them giggling.

It was almost 6 the next morning that he stopped being sick. His stomach finally settling, only to pain him with cramps and aches instead. His temperature was still high, small beads of sweat on his head and cheeks looking like raindrops on rose petals. Another round of medicine and water finally helped settle him into sleep, Mia stroking his dark locks as his breathing finally evened out.

For a time, she simply sat staring at this human being she was meant to protect and care for. It hadn't been the best start, and she hoped that he didn't revert to his unhappy ways once he was better, but the night had shown her a lot of things that David Elster hadn't programmed into her knowledge database. He hadn't programmed them in because, though it saddened her to think, he didn't know about them. He didn't know how clever his son was, how imaginative and interested he was in knowing everything from animals to the world to...the universe! He didn't know what Leo liked to play, what games he flourished most in or got the most from. But Mia had learnt some of this, she knew him more now. She knew that he didn't like the new technological gamestations most children did, and that he didn't always read the mainstream books but instead found the older classics, or the more diverse stories that the libraries and bookstores owned. He preferred walking and playing in the wooded acres of land to watching television or watching movies. He used the new and slowly expanding computers and internet for research rather than 'social' and media based things. David Elster hadn't inputted this data into her codes. Because he simply never knew.

But Mia would find all of this out for herself, she would discover who Leo Elster was alone. She marveled at how big he was for someone so small, how large his world was and how scary it must be at such a tender age. He would have to grow up fast, he would never be small or babied in this life, not by his mother, too sick to care for him, and definitely not by his father, too busy to even bother. But Mia, it was her job to care for him, and to her he was a little thing, a small treasure to hold and nurture. He may have to grow up fast but it wouldn't sit right with her. He should be allowed a childhood and not this excuse to be a young man in a household so harsh.

She knew his father cared deep down, that he wasn't a bad person, but a father and husband who had too many of his own demons and troubles. Leo was hers because of him, he had entrusted him into her care.

A small mumble came from the curled figure on the couch, a hand outstretching to find Mia's own. Taking it, she rubbed circles onto the skin as her other hand carded through his hair.

"Sssh Leo." Leaning forward she placed a light kiss on his cooling head. "You've been so brave little one."

She had finally found the words that suited her, that suited him. He was being forced to grow up, but she would make sure Leo was her 'little one' for as long as she could make it so.

As she sat checking him over, careful not to disturb him, she found a small note tucked under his arm. It was a torn page of the riddle book:

I am the hole in the night,

the ever watchful eye.

I return in a cycle

to enlighten the sky.

Always old, sometimes new.

Never sad, sometimes blue.

Never empty, sometimes full.

Never pushes, always pulls.

What am I?

The Moon.

The riddle was annotated, with lines under sentences or circles around words as if a student were studying it. And beneath the riddle laid a note in Leo's improving handwriting.

Is MiMi the moon?

Leo stirred as she refolded the page, his blue eyes looking up at her, and then down at the paper. "I'm sorry I shouted." He mumbled, a speck of colour returning to his cheeks from shame.

"It is fine, just as long as you know I was, and am, only trying to help."

"And I don't hate you. I think I may quite like you."

"Thank you. And I quite like you Leo, at least when you're not smelly and grumpy. Mr grumpy grumps." She leant forward and gently tickled him, her nose and face rubbing onto his upper chest. He giggled, a small giggle that reminded her he still was unwell and tired. Sitting back she looked at the page in her hand. "Why do you think I'm the moon Leo?"

There was silence as Leo looked about, either looking for the right words or trying to hide his embarrassment. "I just...like the moon. It makes me feel safe. And, I like to think that when you're looking up at it, someone you love is somewhere looking up at it too."

A blossom of affection swelled in her 'heart', there was admiration at just how mature this young boy was and how profound his thoughts already were. He was having to grow up far too quickly in his ever changing and expanding world.

"Then hold onto that Leo." She kissed his head and checked his temperature one more time. Down to 35, still high but no longer classed at 'fever' levels. "Get some more sleep. I will let your father know you're ill and be right back."

The black curls shuffled as he nodded his head into the cushion, his eyes already drooping closed.

Walking to David's workshop she glanced out of the window, the sun was up and the sky was already a strong blue. But there, amongst a soft whisper of clouds she saw it, the moon, saying its farewells before dropping below the horizon. It was full and still so beautiful even with the sun's rays encompassing it. And even in the day, or on a cloud filled night, when she was not visible, she was still there, ever waiting, ever watching.

Ever watching, just as Mia was.

tbc