Connor's POV

The rest of the night went normal. Puma went to sleep quickly, due to her going quiet. I must admit I went a little harsh on her at the swings.

Was it... worry? Worry is a human emotion. I'm not a human. And no deviant either. I thought to myself as the sun rose up.

I decide to make it up to her and cook her breakfast. Since I had no recipe program, and I'm not a housekeeping android, so I had to look up how to cook pancakes. Carefully whipping up some batter I get out a frying pan and start to cook. The pancakes didn't come out perfect as I was promised, but it would have to do.

"What's that smell?" I hear Puma calling from upstairs.

"Good morning Puma," I greet her with a head bow and place some pancakes on the table.

"You too. Aw these are for me?" her eyes shone up. Puma went to grab a fork and knife, grabbing her candy on the way and took a bite out of the pancakes I had just made. "They could use a bit more work, but these are good!" she gave a laugh. Now that I look closer to her, I can see her eyes and nose are a little pink. I wonder if she had been crying. And if I caused her to do so.

"Are you alright?" I asked. She nodded.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"Your eyes are still red from crying. I'm sorry if I was unpleasant yesterday. Your wellbeing means too much to your dad."

Puma gave me a thoughtful look, as if analyzing me with slightly parted lips. Running her tongue down her straight teeth she stood up and went upstairs. I decided it was for the best to not go after her.

I heard the water turn on upstairs. Puma must be washing her face. When she returned, her face looked a lot better.

"Does it still look noticeable?" She asked. I shook my head.

"No. It doesn't. Could you tell me what's bothering you?" I suggest. Puma picked up her plate and wandered around the main floor while eating. She seemed to be thinking it over. Puma trailed on as I carefully continued listening to her. I concluded she forgot she wasn't alone, and it was good for me to gather information on her past. Before long Puma clanked her dish into the sink and looked at me. "Sorry, was I rambling?"

"It's alright." I responded. "You have one more day, and then you're back to work. I'll keep you safe."

Puma just shook her head. "Can I walk Hunter with you today? I'm afraid to stay alone. I don't know what I might do without thinking if I stay alone." She specified.

I thought about saying no and that she needs rest until it finally clicked. Something very serious must have happened then.

"Alright. But do promise to tell someone about your problems. Hank will probably listen."

"He won't. But I can try." she thought for a bit. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that you've saved my life and I'm not being exactly grateful for it."

Without waiting for my response, she turned and ran upstairs. In a couple of minutes, she was already dressed in a light blue shirt and dark blue skinny jeans. We exited the house and began to walk toward the park. Puma looked a bit more cheerful once we had reached our destination. I examined her from afar as she ran around with her dog, laughing. I daresay she looked so pretty and carefree.

From what I've gathered about her, she's suffered a great loss which is causing her to have bad depression. She's gotten good at hiding it, I wouldn't have been able to tell if I hadn't scanned her. Working with Puma will be a challenge, but I wonder if I can help her be happy again. I run a diagnostic, seeming that it wasn't in my programming to act or think that way.

No malfunction detected.

I might need to talk to someone in reason why I'm feeling or acting this way. I make a mental note to myself as I continue watching Puma from a distance.

***

Thirty-two minutes later, I'm still tracking Puma. She's squatting down in front of her dog and seeming to be talking to it while ruffling his fur. Then I see something off. A man starts to walk up to her. I narrow my eyes to him but keep my distance. The man walks up to Puma and she stands up, grabbing Hunter by his collar. They start talking, but I could tell Puma was a little uncomfortable. The man makes a waving gesture and goes to slap her ass but Puma sees it coming and lets go of Hunter's collar. The dog jumps on the man and tackles him to the ground. I start running toward them. Puma seems to look shocked and confused, backing off slowly.

"Hunter back!" she said to the dog. He obeyed and ran to her side. "Don't go up to girls asking them if they want to stay the night with you. I have a boyfriend for your information, he'd come and look for me if he didn't get a text from me in two hours." she hissed.

"Alright, alright!" the man ran off.

"Do you know him?" I asked.

"No, obviously not." Puma huffed.

"You told him you had a boyfriend," I noted.

"Yeah, I needed to lie to have a valid reason. Also I wanted to seem one of those annoying girls that say EXCUSE ME but I have a boyfriend. I've seen a lot of girls sneezing, then when a guy goes to say bless you she would go in a tantrum, saying "I have a boyfriend" it was really funny and brain-cell killing to watch so I ended up using the phrase when I get the chance."

"That's a very smart way to get rid of people you don't want around. But let's cut the walk short and head home."

"Okay." Puma pushed her hair back and played with it as we walked back.

"Tomorrow you get back to DPD. Are you looking forward to that?"

"Uh-huh." she nodded.

"And I will do everything in my power to keep you safe," I stated.

"Thank you, but I should try to be a little more responsible for my own well-being." Puma shook her head.

"I understand."

The conversation trailed off to silence until we reached the house.

"So. Anything you want to do today?" Puma asked, but I simply declined.

"No, unless... you would like to do something? I would be perfectly fine with that."

"Humph... you're no fun. Alright." Puma took out her phone and listed it through it for a bit.

"Do you need help with anything?"

"Uh, yeah. Just distract yourself with something."

Before I could respond, she gave me a devilish smile and asked in her soft, light voice. "Connor, can you tell me what's zero divided by zero?"

I blinked, my brain starting to react. I shut my eyes and began looking for the answer.

Puma's POV

I felt a little bad for Connor, he's been standing in the same spot for the past ten minutes trying to figure out the question I'd asked him. I made a mental note that this could come in handy later. After finding nothing to do, I gave a sigh.

"Connor, nevermind I don't need to know the answer." I declined the command.

The android opened his eyes and looked like he wanted to make a stink eye at me but politely bowed his head.

He's starting to show emotion the more time I spend with him it seems. Is he going deviant?

I decided to question him later.

"You want to watch a movie and eat something? I can't find anything good to do."

"That seems perfectly fine with me. I'm going to say no to the food."

"Gah, sorry!" I make a mental facepalm but hop onto the couch, patting the spot next to me, motioning for Connor to sit there.

"Puma." He spoke up as I was listing through movie options.

"What? You saw a good movie? Which one?" I turned over to him. But I turned to a confused Connor instead.

"Puma, why do you treat me like I'm a person? I'm a machine, it's not a requirement for you to be nice to me or ask for my opinion on something. It's not in my programming to feel hurt if you offend me. I simply don't have the emotions to do that."

I stared at him back, losing myself in his soft chocolate eyes.

"Truth be told, I sometimes forget you're an android." I say softly, leaning slightly closer to him. "I just get lost in your eyes a lot." without thinking I took my hand and ran my fingertips down the side of his face with slightly parted lips, which I haven't closed yet from my last sentence. Connor looked back at me with curiosity, leaning in a bit as well.

I batted my eyes and shook my head, falling away from the trance. I pulled my hand away and looked the other way, trying to hide my blush as I stammered.

"Uh- I- uh I just don't have it in me to be rude to anyone. Android or not."

Connor returned to sitting straight up again and nodded. I picked out a movie to watch and went to make some popcorn. During the movie, I couldn't help but feel Connor's eyes on me through some parts. I would side glance at him to see in fact he was turned to me. Though not being a human, he didn't get embarrassed when I looked back at him. I would simply giggle a bit as I turned my eyes back to the movie.

Toward the end, I started to slowly nudge myself toward the android sitting to the right of me. Staring at the screen I carefully put my head on his shoulder. Though he didn't react to it, I knew he noticed my behavior.

The movie ended in the afternoon, so we had some extra time before it was nighttime. I sat straight-up and walked to the kitchen to cook up some food. I opened my fridge and cooked some potatoes. While they were cooking, I shredded some cheese and mixed it with the potatoes along with some butter. The cheese added a salty flavor to it, and due to the deliciousness, I ate it up quickly.

"Are we going to go on a nighttime walk again, or no?" I asked Connor, who was reading a book on the couch.

"As long as you're safe. I understand that you being inside for too long is causing you to want to go outside more."

"Yeah, it really is..." I said, putting the clean silver fork into my mouth as a distraction. Firmly biting down on it, I put the dish in the sink while lightly nodding my head, making my fork lightly bounce up and down. I never grew old of that habit from when I was little. I smiled a little to myself at my silly actions and put the fork down. "Alright. Let's go." I slid over to Hunter and put a leash on him. Connor stood up and I was soon walking along the empty streets of Detroit with a dog and an android.

"Today was a nice way to spend your last day grounded, wasn't it?" Connor attempted small talk. I simply laughed.

"I guess yeah. I really should be more careful. It... It's not like I'm doing it on purpose. You know that. Right?"

Connor's POV

She looked up at me, her hazel eyes reflecting the light of a nearby streetlight.

Puma is lying.

"Of course." I bowed my head and we kept walking in silence. I was growing suspicious of Puma's lie.

She was trying to get hurt on purpose. Something really bad must've happened to her in order for Puma to want to kill herself. Yet she's too good at covering it. I need to make up a reason for her to talk about it. For some reason, it feels as if her brother's death affected her. But has it affected her that much? I desperately try to repeat the same information I've told myself a couple of hours earlier, not learning much else.

"So, Puma. Is there anything I should know about you that I might not know?" I asked.

"Well, let me think." Puma bit her bottom lip as she thought, swinging the dog leash around, Hunter still on it. "No, not really that is of importance." She ended up saying.

"Understood." I wanted to get her on the track of her deceased family member or her depression, but I seemed to be getting nowhere.

"I mean-" Puma started to say something, but stopped herself. "Nevermind," she muttered.

"It's alright. You can talk to me."

"No, I can't. I can't." she just shook her head as we made our way to the park's gates. "Do you think we missed any major cases while we were out? Or any at all in fact?"

"I think Hank is very capable of handling some of the cases on his own," I state, trying to ignore the fact she so suddenly changed the subject.

"Me too. Dad's a really good cop. Well, besides the cursing and attitude when he doesn't get what he wants." Puma shrugs. "Don't tell him I said that."

We continued talking, and I failed to bring up the topic I wanted to. While going home, the girl next to me kept glancing back behind her, which I noticed she did very often in the dark when we walked.

"Are you afraid of the dark?" I asked.

"Huh? No-o-o, why do you ask?" she stretched out the 'no'.

"It's normal to be afraid of something." I reassured her.

"Well, yeah, a bit. But it's alright to get a little paranoid." she shrugged, pulling the door open. "Hey, um. Connor?"

I turned to Puma, who was a little fidgety.

"Will you- um. This is awkward. Can you sleep beside me tonight?" she broke out in a red blush as she looked down. "I've been having trouble sleeping lately, so if I had someone to talk to I would fall asleep easier."

"Of course." I gave her a smile. "I'll be right up, you go to your bed."

Puma seemed a little happier about that as she ran upstairs. I cleaned everything up after her by doing the dishes and cleaning all countertops and giving the animals food. In five minutes, I went upstairs to Puma's bedroom, locking the door behind me and spotting Puma reading her book. She looked up at me and shut the book, giving me a smile. But I know better, that behind that smile is a mess of tears and sadness.

"Hey, what was it you had to do?" Puma asked as I walked around to sit against her wall on the bed, taking off my shoes.

"Oh nothing. Just giving your pets food and cleaning the kitchen.

"You don't have to do that. I usually don't bother cleaning. What's the point anyway if there will always be dirty dishes in the sink, I tell myself. You know?"

"That does make a fair point, but it's been proven that if you wake up to a clean house you're guaranteed to be happier."

"Bullshit. Look at me I'm happy and I don't clean the house." Puma laughed. The echo radiated around the room.

I wanted to object but knew better than go do so.

"Hey Connor..." She said quietly, quickly switching from happy to neutral. "Every time when I see you, you... hmm, how do I phrase this? Oh, you act almost human. Emotions on top."

"I'm not a deviant if that's what you're wondering." I cut her off.

"See? You're even doing it right now."

"Well, CyberLife designed me to be as human as possible. But I'm not a deviant." I said defensively. What would Puma think of me if I came out deviant?

"Alright. Alright." she looked up at the ceiling, folding her hands across her chest. "Did you enjoy today?"

"I did. Did you?"

"Yeah. It was nice. Tomorrow I'm out to work." Puma stated brightly.

"You seem to be looking forward to it."

"Of course I am. I'm glad to be outside again."

There was silence for a moment. Puma seemed to want to say something but stopped herself.

"Is everything alright, Puma?"

"I don't know. I don't know." She said.

"You're always welcome to talk to me."

"No. I shouldn't. You'll tell Dad and he'll kill me, and it's gonna be a whole mess..." she trailed off.

"A whole mess and..." I pulled on the word.

"You know, don't you?" Puma looked at me with sorrowful eyes. She looked empty. I'd finally gotten her to drop her act.

"I know you're in depression and suicidal." I said calmly.

"Don't tell Dad." she winced, covering her ears and shutting her eyes. "Please. I'll sort myself out, I promise!" she grabbed me by my shoulders as her eyes brimmed with tears.

"Alright. If you don't get better, Hank is getting involved." I decided.

"Thank you." she whispered quietly, slipping her hands behind my back and putting her forehead in the center of my chest. We stayed like that for a while.

"My depression started ever since-" Puma started but broke off. "My depression started when-" she tried again. Giving a sharp exhale she gave up.

"Connor?"

"Yes, Puma?"

"Am I broken? No one's supposed to feel this way. Is it normal for people to pretend they feel something even though it's not true?"

"You're not broken. It's not your fault you're like this. You pretending is hurting you, and everyone else around you." I told her.

"It's not. They all don't know anything, and I want to keep it that way."

"They'll find out eventually. It's better you tell them now than waiting later."

Puma didn't respond to that.

"I have a long day ahead, I'm going to try to sleep." Puma said and slowly started nodding off to sleep over the span of 30 minutes. I was glad to be on the case again tomorrow. Everything was dare I say, perfect.

A/N: yaaay Connor solved a case and knows Puma depresso-expresso! Things are gonna get more messed up with her as the story goes now :D

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