Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Zeta Project'. I do not own any of its characters. I deeply appreciate Robert Goodman as the creator of 'The Zeta Project' and all 'The Zeta Project' team. So it's just a fanfic.

As English isn't my native language, I want to thank Dragonmaster01 for her editing work on this chapter.

As in all of my stories, here Zee has a material covering over his synthoid's body. More details about this idea, you can find in Chapter Three of my fanfic "The Nettle's Shirt', book 1 of 'You Need Me".

Hide and Seek

by Iglika

Chapter Five

Ro's point of view

Someone knocked on the door.

For a few moments though I didn't go to see who was that. It would be too good if it was Zee. But who else would knock on my door? The servant-bot wouldn't come to clean the room while I was here. I hadn't called room service either. Then who was that?

With a sinking heart I stood up and I opened the door…

I froze.

And the only word I managed to utter was, "You?"

It was Tiffy or…it was Zee with Tiffy's hologram. I didn't believe it was Tiffy. I was still quite sure that I was able to recognize Zee and to sense if it was him, no matter what hologram he would wear. But if I tried to say that I know it's him, he probably would disappear again, as he did last night when I insisted so badly that he had to confess that it was him. He had to have some reason to pretend to be Tiffy so the best I could do was just to play along. Besides, it was winter and 'Tiffy' wore a jacket. I was curious to hear what excuse 'she' would invent for not taking off her jacket once in the room.

Real or not, Tiffy wasn't the one I wanted to have as company right now, so I stood my ground and looked sourly at her.

After a few seconds I finally said, "What are you doing here?"

"Hi, Ro. That's not the best way to welcome someone, is it?" her freckled face made a grumpy expression. "May I come in still?"

"Huh…well...yes…as you're here anyway…"

"Thanks" she rolled her eyes in order to show me that she wasn't happy to be with me either. "Zee called me. He said that he had some work to do on his own and he doesn't want you to be alone on your birthday as both you and Casey wouldn't be able to come to Hillsburg to celebrate your birthday. He said you need me so I'm here to help."

"Zee told you all this?"

"Yes, why? What's the problem?" asked Tiffy with her stupid expression of mannered innocence, which I hated so much and she…

What?

She took off her jacket and put it on the chair. And she smelled of some female perfume, it wasn't Zee's familiar smell of after-shave.

Well, okay, real jacket as the real red bandana, real female perfume - Zee was able to buy all this, it didn't prove anything yet.

But I started to be bewildered and that made me nervous.

"So you're here to help me." I said sullenly. "Thanks, but I don't need anyone's help, I'm fine!"

"You look nervous, Ro. I wouldn't say that you're exactly fine."

"And I wouldn't say that we are exactly friends. Don't take me wrong, Tiffy, but if I wanted someone's help I would call you by my own."

"I thought the past is forgotten." She blinked, offended. "Giving you your brother's picture, I wanted to prove you that we can be friends."

"I'm sorry, Tiffy. It's not my day today."

"But it has to be your day. It's your birthday, the day which has to be special, completely yours and different."

"Yeah, it's exactly that way - completely different than anything I had expected to be."

"That's why I'm here, to make the things better for you" and saying this, Tiffy went to the chair, she took her jacket and pulled out from one of the pockets a little box, then she opened it and brought out a piece of jewelry - some little brooch. "Ouch!" she yelped and a drop of blood appeared on her finger.

A drop of blood? She had pricked herself on the brooch? The drop of blood wasn't a hologram, it rested on the brooch. Tiffy pulled out a hanky from the jacket, she cleaned the brooch, she put it back in the box, then she pressed the hanky on her finger and she said with confusion, "I'm so sorry about that. Actually I hate brooches, I guessed you hate them too, that was why I bought it. I have other present for you at home, but I bought this coming here, I was so angry that Zee, you and Casey didn't come home for your birthday. Anyway, happy birthday, this is for you, I wanted to put this on your blouse, but probably it's useless as soon as you wouldn't wear it one way or another" and she handed me the box.

Was this a real human here; was this Tiffy for real and not Zee?

"Thank you" I said completely perplexed, which made me more nervous. I hated to be perplexed and nervous, that wasn't the usual way I reacted, it wasn't common for me, I felt so bad, as if I was feeling the ground slipping from under my feet.

Tiffy sat in the chair and looking at me with some expression of pity, she began to curl one of her reddish tresses, "Zee said he wouldn't be able to be around you for some time. It's strange. What made you both to separate?"

"Zee wouldn't be able to be around me anymore. Ever."

"But…you and Zee…you looked like…you looked like nothing could separate you…"

"So I thought. I thought he wouldn't leave me, ever. Anyway. He left. He left forever, Tiffy. He left me. It's over."

"He left you?" Tiffy stopped playing with her plait and she looked at me with her black eyes wide open, "So it's not some job he has to do, but he left you? That couldn't be possible! He'll come back to you, Ro!"

"No. He wouldn't. I chased him out, I told him to leave and he's not coming back."

"You told him to leave? You? When I said to you that I wonder if he would kiss me again, it was you who said that you would throw up if he would do this! At first I thought that it was merely your usual roughness, but when you began to deny that you're falling for him it was so clear that you loved him."

No, that was impossible! There was no way for Zee to know what I had said to Tiffy…

And…that meant…

It was really Tiffy in front of me?

The truth was that right now I didn't know who I wanted to have here - Zee or Tiffy…

I needed to talk to someone about what happened between Zee and me, I needed to share, I needed someone to listen to me, to tell me what to do…Zee was my best friend, indeed, and more than that to me, but now I needed some girl to share my girlish troubles with.

I gave up. I had to talk. I just had to.

"Zee wouldn't come back to me, Tiffy, he wouldn't. I know him. He's always obeying me, he wants to please me, ever, and if he thinks that that is what I really want from him, he wouldn't come back."

"It sounds contradicted, Ro" Tiffy frowned with concern. "You want to be with him, but you had told him to leave. How could you expect him to not leave then?"

"I thought he's human enough to understand that I really didn't want him to leave and what I said was something different, not my real wish, but a way to provoke him. I thought he's different. I thought he's able to sense my moods, to know me better than anyone else, he was my best friend and he was closer to me than anyone else and he was…he was so tender, so kind, so understanding..."

"Then why did you want him to leave?"

"I told you, I didn't want him to leave! I wanted to challenge him. I wanted him to...Why I'm sharing all this with you!"

"Am I the worst person who could be by your side right now? You said the past is forgotten."

"The old past! But not the recent past! Don't you get it? Why you always have to be so carefree as if you don't notice anything except your own nose! He kissed you, didn't he?"

"C'mon, Ro, I thought he's Adam Heat!"

"But he knew he's not Adam Heat!"

"Maybe you had said something back then, which made him to act like this."

"I had never told him that he have to kiss a girl instead to say 'hello'!"

"Sure, but I can't imagine you didn't tell him anything about the way he had to behavior!"

"Of course I told him! But I asked him to act normal; I really wanted to impress you all!"

"And I was impressed!"

"Yeah, you were! With a kiss!"

"You had told him to act normal and to kiss a girl instead to say 'hello' is pretty normal for a vid-star!"

"I didn't tell him to become Adam Heat! It was his idea! And he had to know that to kiss you couldn't be something, which could impress me!"

"Maybe he had seen his only chance in me."

"His only chance? About what?"

"Ro, he's a synthoid. Even you used this fact to cover your jealousy by saying that you are disgusting on the thought that he could kiss someone. If I didn't know you, I would think that you really think that a synthoid's kiss could be nothing but something loathsome. I'm sure he was thinking the same, I'm sure he was afraid of revolting you. Just think, Ro, maybe he merely wanted to try if his kiss is real enough before daring to kiss you."

"And what if you had realized that he's not a human on the doorstep yet?"

"The doorstep is an easy place to run from."

"And what about my chance to know something about my parents?"

"Thinking of a kiss with you he probably had forgotten about the rest."

"Just great! To kiss you, because he had had wanted to kiss me! Typical man's thinking! Anyway, he didn't try to show me this!"

"Maybe he tries."

"He doesn't, he's gone, that's not trying!"

"Do you think it's easy for him?"

"But I promised to help him; I helped him all the time!"

"He couldn't ask you for advice about the relationship between you both."

"He could ask me anything, he knew it…"

"Why did you fall in love with him, Ro? Because he could be your servant? Because he doesn't have anything than you? Because his dreams and even the goal of his life are connected with you? Because he's a humble robot?"

"No! How dare you!…I fell in love with him although he's a robot!"

"I guess this could be fixed."

"How? Maybe I have to call Pinocchio's Blue Fairy? Or maybe the Programming Fairy? Or the Synthoid Fairy?"

"You both will find Dr. Selig. And I think if Zee could know that you love him, he'll do anything to become human even if you would never find his creator."

"Yes, but I don't want him to do this only to please me! I like that he's humble, but I want him to not be so humble all the time, I want to know that he can take decisions by his own! That's why I challenged him to leave."

"But he had taken a lot of decisions on his own, hadn't he?"

"Yes, it's true, but I wanted to make him to not obeying me this to time; I wanted him to act as a real human. If he really wanted to stay with me, if he loves me, he had to say it to me!"

"Maybe he had something in mind."

"Yeah, right! He just obeyed me. I told you, I wanted to provoke him to take a decision on his own and he failed."

"No, Ro, I don't think so."

"You don't understand! It was yesterday's night, he thought I was sleeping and he started to caress my hair, I was sure he wanted to kiss me and when I took his face in my hands showing him that he could do this, he didn't do anything. Why? Why he didn't kiss me if he really loved me?"

Tiffy goggled with the same mannered expression I didn't like at all, "Is this the reason you chased him out?"

She was more amused rather than shocked and I already regretted that I had told her all this, I didn't have to share with her anything. It was just Tiffy; she would never be my real friend.

I snapped, "What is so funny?"

"Oh…nothing, I'm sorry" she shocked her head, she avoided my eyes and she silenced.

Great.

From now on we had nothing to say to each other. What a birthday!

It was getting dark outside, I commanded the lights in the room to be on and I got the phone to order dinner. I didn't ask what Tiffy would like to eat. It was my birthday and she would eat what I had chosen. She was looking at me while I was ordered the dinner, without saying anything, but before to hang up the phone, she took it from my hands and added, "And a birthday cake, please."

Whatever.

I didn't mind having a birthday cake on the table, but it really didn't matter. My birthday was already ruined one way or another.

Tiffy glanced at me, then she sighed, shrugging her shoulders as if she wanted to say that she was able to understand how I feel, but she couldn't help me to bring back Zee and she approached the window.

It was started to snow. Everything looked lilac, almost pink because of the night lights of the town - the sky, the snow of the roofs and over the hotel's garden - everything had sunk in this tender violet color.

For some long minutes Tiffy remained there, by the window, looking outside. Then as she was still gazing at the falling snow, she said softly, "Look how peaceful is everything when it snowing. When it's raining, you can hear the sound of the falling raindrops over the ground, over the roofs, over the leaves. But the snow is quiet. It falls slowly and noiselessly, as if it's not real, as if it's some fairytale. Isn't it strange, Ro? The snow is cold, but while it's falling so slow and while you're looking how everything all around is covered by this downy blanket, it seems as if it begins to be somehow warmer and cozier in the room."

I didn't answer. Despite the real jacket and the blood drop on her finger, despite she knew what I had said when Zee wasn't there, she wasn't Tiffy. There was only one person who was able to say something like that about the snow. So I asked quietly, "Zee?"

"M-m-m?" he thoughtfully murmured with his male voice as he still had Tiffy's appearance and he still looked through the window with his back at me.

"The game is over, Zee. Can you please switch back? I'll close my eyes. When I'll open them I want to see you, okay?"

I really closed my eyes and it was mostly as a sign of anger than as some sort of patience.

I heard the familiar hissing of his changing hologram and when I opened my eyes he was really there - in front of me. A meek Zee, who looked at me confusedly. I was about angrily to cross my arms, but I wasn't sure it was the right thing I had to do, so I dropped my arms aside my body with some gesture, which actually had no meaning.

"Well, Zee, now you know why all this was about."

"Yes, now I know. I'm so sorry that I disappointed you. But I didn't want to offend you, I love you, Ro."

"Then why you behaved like this? I kissed you in front of Casey's eyes, then I showed you so clearly that you can kiss me and you did nothing, you said nothing! Why, Zee? That wasn't fair."

"I didn't mean to hurt you, Ro. I was just confused, I was really tempted to kiss you when I was thinking that you were sleeping, but I didn't expect that you were awake. I really wanted to kiss you, Ro, but at the same time I didn't want to…err…to ruin my plans."

"Plans?"

"Yes, I had plans, is this so unbelievable?"

"Of course not, Zee, but I was disappointed!"

"I'm really sorry, Ro."

"It's okay, but still - what your plans were?"

"I knew you wanted this for your birthday" he pulled out from the compartment of his chest the last model of my favorite mini-vid game and he handed it to me. "But I thought it's something too common for a real present, something too usual. So I wanted…" He smiled shyly. "I wanted to kiss you for the first time on your birthday that was why I didn't kiss you last night."

"I should have known that you're hopelessly romantic!"

"Yes, I am…I guess." He smiled even more shyly, he approached me, he gently placed his hands on my shoulders, "Happy Birthday, Ro" and after one more cute smile he finally dared to kiss me…very timidly at first, but then more and more bravely until I was really lost inside his kisses…

"Nice present" I said smiling at him when we stopped kissing.

Then I took the black lapel of his coat and I said pretending to be stern, "But you owe me some explanations about your today's show. You had bought the jacket, but the blood drop? And how did you know what I had said to Tiffy when you weren't there that time?"

"I discovered lately that my material covering on my hands has the possibility to imitate blood if I suddenly had to prick myself."

"Why didn't you tell me about that?"

"As we were always on the run and we always had some other more important things to talk about…"

"Besides, where your usual fresh smell of after shave had gone? How did you manage to change it with female perfume?"

"Well, it was now when I realized that actually when I wear male holograms, the smell of that after shave remains the same, but when I wear a female hologram it's changing."

"Logically."

"Yes, but…" He made a funny expression of aversion, "I felt odd, actually I felt bad, pretending to be a girl."

"Because you're a guy!" I kissed him. "And what about my conversation with Tiffy?"

"I made a phone call; I had to warn Tiffy, Walt and Mr. Morgan that we wouldn't come to celebrate your birthday with them. I said Tiffy that we had a fight and that I need to know something from that day when we were in her house, no matter what, but something you both had talked about while I was away, so she told me your conversation."

"Ahhaaaaaaa…And one more question, Zee. Why did you pretend to be Tiffy?"

"For several reasons. I thought that you would need to talk to someone different than me. I really begged Tiffy to come and help you, to talk to you and to be with you on your birthday, possibly for a few days, but she very politely refused me."

"I knew it! She wouldn't never do this for me!"

"Don't be angry at her. I was here for you, wasn't I?"

"Yeah, you were, but please keep your Zee appearance in the future, got it?"

"Got it." He couldn't help, but smiled. "I merely needed Tiffy's appearance now because I thought that you would say things to Tiffy which you wouldn't say to me."

"Probably."

"And also because I wanted to understand you better, Ro. Every actor who had played female characters says after that that he's able to understand women better, that he respects women more and that he started to think about them in a new way."

"It's not the first time when you wear a female hologram!"

"Yes, it's true, but it was accidentally so far. It's different just to wear a hologram for a little while and to act accordingly while wearing it."

"Well, do you know me better now?"

"I don't think so. Maybe if I had played this role for days…"

"Don't even think about it!"

"I wouldn't!" He smiled again. "I guess there is a better way to know you more."

"And this is?"

"To stay by you and to be with you fore---"

A knock on the door cut his words and made us to cast a glance at each other.

No, it couldn't be Bennet; he would enter the room with the door already, rather to knocking. It was the servant bot with the dinner and a birthday cake.

When the bot left, I ran to the table.

"At the girls' homes I always wanted to have a whole birthday cake, the whole for me, to eat it all alone."

"You should tell me…"

"It's not interesting to buy a whole cake and eat it just so. It has to be a birthday cake."

"You wouldn't eat it all at once, would you? You would feel ill….." Zee asked so anxiously that I broke into laughter.

"No, I wouldn't eat all at once! I'm just glad of what I have now - a snow calm evening, away from Bennet, a new vid-game, a whole cake for me only and you here, by my side! And you said that you would do anything to become human. What I probably may ask for a perfect birthday!"

"Maybe this" his dimples surrounded his cute smile and he bent over me to kiss me again.

The end

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