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Just... as human...?

In shock he watched the old woman walk out, forcing himself to hold it back as she told him that he could walk around. "Thank you." and nodded once more, sitting there as he looked down at Momo. "I shouldn't be anything close to human, I am nothing more than zeros and ones meant to follow programs which are comprised of the same bytes of data." he wiped the water droplets falling on the pale skin.

"I shouldn't even be crying. i shouldn't be able to do that it's a waste of precious water." and wiped at his face, "Why does being told I'm human make me cry. That is a human action I should be incapable of." and sat there, silently crying to himself, trying to run through data to try and stop it, but it'd stop and fizz out, this act of crying, this unknown sadness, interrupting him each time he tried to stop it. Why was it so powerful, it stopped his concentration each time and looped Mama's sentence again.

"That, son, makes you just as human as the rest of us."

Why was it looping back?

He'd be done crying by the time Momo would wake up, eyes circled with red along with his nose, the android was an ugly crier. But Hal had his excuse ready. A chemical in the air which would temporarily affect the chemicals in his false skin.

Momo didn't wake up that day, or the next.

Malcom and Cujo did walk in to visit, but Hal had to silently usher them out, speaking with them outside, making sure they were okay before letting them go run off to play with what other children there were before re-entering the room. He couldn't stay away from Momo for too long, fearing he would wake up alone.

There were few seconds where Momo would wake, but the noises he made signalled they were nightmares, and after touching him the first time Hal had to snap his hand away, switching to heat-vision before yelling for Mama. Fever, and an incredibly high one at that. Infection. Hal was panicking, yet was told not to help. Mama would solve it, they promised him. She'd help him get better. Luckily the old woman must have seen the android reaching his wits end because she had ordered him to keep watch and to change out the wet cloth on his head, it had to stay cool to help keep down the fever, but the towel would heat due to fever, so it soon required two or three towels needing to be rotated to keep the man partially cool.

And Hal learned fear when the room went silent, once or twice, but Momo's heartbeat had stopped. Fear, panic, something cold and chilly as he yelled and began CPR for the man. Malcom visited during the few moments of calm, bringing flowers and teaching Hal about what they grew before leaving again. At least one of them was calm.

Finally, nine days later, Hal exhausted, every program telling him to shut down, to sleep, to close his eyes, nine days later Momo woke up.

The movement was so subtle that the robot wondered if he was hallucinating. But the blue eyes finally opened and Hal smiled at the awful joke.

"I froze programs that required me to close my eyes and recharge." Gently he switched out the towels, moving the orange bangs back. "Though you don't look any better."

"Drink you water." hal reached for it, grabbing air and realizing it was on Momo's other side. Luckily the male realize that and drank it without help.

"I didn't want you to wake up alone." he said, "I was worried that if I fell asleep they would move me away from you." and gave a small smile before pulling a bed beside Momo's and lying down on it, reaching out and taking Momo's hand in his. "Deal, just please don't get another fever. You've died twice already..." and shifted closer, bringing the held hand to his face, just centimeters from his nose and mouth, warm breath that shouldn't exist breathing against it. "Your heart beat is healthy though, that's good." the male smiled before finally closing his blue eyes. "Setting an alarm." he mumbled, "five minutes...."

And he was out like a light, breathing softly, his own heartbeat on and beating the slow rhythm of sleep.

Hal woke up a few hours later, cursing his internal alarm for now being the most useless thing in his database. Tired eyes looked at the pale sleeping face, fingers running over the warm ones and feeling the heartbeat. He was still healthy.

Shifting forward he carefully put his lips on Momo's, doing a quick exchange of oxygen while he was sleeping, nothing more than a breath or two before sitting up properly and wiping at his eyes, pausing to look at the eye gunk.

he shouldn't be developing biological matter. "It's probably all of this dirt in the air." he mumbled, wiping his eyes properly. "Radiation."

Logical explanations for biological matter in his tear ducts. Completely logical.

Hal got up, drinking a bit of water to keep his own internal system cool before refilling the glass for Momo before hearing the whimper.

He knew that whimper.

The glass was placed down quickly, android ready to grab the human but stopped, knowing that would make it worse. "Monoki!" he called, "Monoki it's just a nightmare!" then the scream, signalling he was awake.

"It's a nightmare! Monoki it's a nightmare! It's me! It's Hal! You're just tangled in blankets I'm so sorry." he worked on getting the man undone, soon yanking them off. "I'm sorry. I cleaned you out while you slept I didn't mean to trigger a nightmare I'm so sorry."

Hel bent down as he was grabbed, wrapping his arms around Momo and sitting, rocking back and forth gently. "You're okay, You're okay." he whispered, stroking his hair and back. "Your arm should be a little better. We won't tell Mama, but let's take off this sling, just for a bit okay?" he whispered, "but drink some water first, okay? It was a nightmare, I promise that won't happen again."

It was Hal's fault. He should have been more considerate and done it when Momo was awake. "All right, I'll leave it." and stroked the red-hair as Kas walked up.

"Oh, good morning." he greeted, smiling a bit and going silent as Momo was greeted, moving his hand down to hold the robotic one. "Yes, I finally managed a few hours of sleep." Hal took the clean spoon, looking it over before offering it to his friend. "here you go."

Hal had given the spoon to Momo solely because he knew the man would initially refuse his help. But he could already see the pain and the thought of how bad an idea this was, but the android stayed silent, resisting the urge to help. Try one, pain, try two, spilled gruel, try three, dropped spoon.

"Thank you, Kas." Hal waited until he was gone to take the bowl, gently cleaning off the mess and began feeding him. "It's all right. You'll get better." And kept feeding him until the bowl was half full, holding it at chest level to Momo. "Try feeding yourself. At this distance from your body and this low from your mouth, you shouldn't spill any. Are you able?"