Stars shone down at them, plainly in sight. There was a small clearing in the forest where a number of trees had been hacked down and it was incredibly quiet. They were too far from the dirt path to hear any passing vehicles and all the birds had gone to sleep with the coming of the dark. Number Five studied the area quietly, revering the seclusion. It had shut down a lot of its systems just to hear the silence, though some it could not shut down and it was vaguely aware of the buzz those generated, though it was more of a feeling than a noise.

Newton was sitting on one of the smaller tree stumps and was gazing up at the hole in the forest canopy, back to back with the robot. Number Five could hear the beating of his heart.

After a few moments it turned its head to face Newton, suddenly realising that the man had not answered its question. "Newton?"

"Mmm?"

"Why do we live?" it asked.

The man looked up at it. "Well there's not really an answer to that question," he admitted. Number Five could tell he was being honest. "But my father always said there's no point in living if you can't have any fun. Of course he never remembered that whenever I and my friends came back home covered in dirt and bruises."

"What else did he say?"

There was a lengthy pause and a hum. "Those that ran for fear of death did not live. I think he just meant they spent so long worrying that they never had any fun or took any pleasure in anything they did."

Number Five looked back up at the sky. "I like it here. But what are those?" It pointed towards the strange shapes in the higher branches of the trees. The level of light made it difficult for it to see them properly and it could not even guess.

"Tree houses," he said, his tone suggesting he was smiling. "This place is a secret place that only I, my sister and our friends knew about. When we were old enough we cut down some of the smaller trees and used the timber to build with. We wanted to build a ring of tree houses around the opening and connect them, but we didn't get very far."

"Tree houses? Why?" It tried to get a better picture of them but failed, though it could vaguely make out little windows and doors. They must have been about fifty or sixty feet up the trees, and that was a bit daunting; Newton must be excellent at climbing.

"It was something to do, and a place to escape to."

"Escape?" It could not fathom what Newton might have wanted to escape from; he had not been on the run from the government when he was younger, at least it did not think so.

"Yeah. Escape from reality and create your own little world, where you don't have to worry about everyday mundane things."

"Oh." Things made a little bit more sense to it now, though explanations were not as detailed as it hoped for. The pain it had been ignoring for the past half hour unexpectedly made itself aware again and it cringed silently, shutting its eyes in an effort to reduce the environmental information it was receiving. Newton did not see it since he was looking in the opposite direction, but it was a wonder he did not notice the amount of heat the robot was generating. Number Five almost whimpered but stopped itself, pushing the overheating warnings out of its mind. But despite its efforts to ignore the pain, it could still feel the effects; its thought processes were slowing down and its systems were beginning to crash, making it feel tired, irritable and a little bit dizzy.

"Newton?" it probed tentatively, unsure how to bring its problem to his attention.

"What?" It felt Newton twist around to face it.

It suddenly did not feel like bringing it up, but it did not want to say 'nothing' lest the human caught on. "Can we build one?"

"Sure! Just not right now; it's too dark and we don't have the materials or tools."

Once again, the pain increased, but it managed to control itself and did not recoil. It wanted to think about other things; like when and how they were going to build a tree house, or fantasise about the books and films it had seen or read, but it was just not able. It physically felt horrible, and it was getting worse. It was also really confused because for the first time in its life it actually wanted to sleep; its instincts told it that doing so would solve its problems. However, it knew it could not allow itself to loose consciousness right there because it would be dangerous in the middle of a forest, and there was no way Newton could carry it back home. It felt it was imperative that Newton knew how it was feeling, but its Nova programming and the idea of appearing weak, even to its creator, held it back.

Too absorbed in its problems it failed to notice Newton had been speaking.

"We used to come up with our own star constellations too. That one right there I think," he pointed at a number of stars, "that one we thought looked like Harvey being chased by Helen; they were an old couple that used to own some of our fields before my dad bought them off them. Helen was one mean woman, but Harvey was fun. I'm surprised they stuck together for so long. And see that one right there…"

"Newton…" Number Five interrupted, feeling desperate. The human silenced himself. "Not feel right," it blurted out before it could stop itself.

"Huh?" He turned his whole body around to face the robot properly. "What's wrong?"

"Overload." After finally telling him what was wrong it became much easier to talk about it. It cringed audibly as more pain came.

"Aww…" Newton sympathised, rubbing its shoulder gently. "Too much input for today, huh?"

Number Five nodded. "Want go to home."

Newton gave a small smile. "Why didn't you say anything until now?" He took a hold of its hand again and began leading it away from the clearing and back towards the path home.

"Talking to you uncomfortable," it said with a whine.

"I…oh." Newton looked confused. He seemed to think about something for a while. "You still don't trust me, do you?"

"Not much."

"Why not? I'm not going to hurt you; I care about you."

"Hmm…" Number Five moaned. It did not feel like analysing anything, but it did notice what Newton had said sounded honest enough and that lifted a lot of its doubts about him.

The human did not probe it any further, realising that it could not handle much conversation. It did not stop him from giving a little lecture though. "You weren't built to handle all of this. So you really ought to stop analysing things so much, and rest a bit more. You're brain clearly can't handle this much crap in one go." Newton chided it. He almost sounded like he was scolding himself too. "Look at the state of you."

Number Five did not respond, looking down at the ground whilst they wandered out of the woods. It did not feel guilty or sorry, but it knew Newton was right. "Mind going. Tired," it told him after a few moments of silence.

He rolled his brown eyes. "You must be feeling bad before you're admitting that."