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“Thatdoeshurt, doesn’t it?” Milo drew Rowan’s distracted attention back to him. “Bad, Spot. Though to be fair, she can’t seem to help it, can she? Perhaps she could use some improved sensors. We could work on it together!” Milo’s jubilance and endless energy renewed some of Rowan’s, tired as he was, and as easily as he might have otherwise crawled into bed after a hot shower. “Tomorrow, maybe? But tonight… is it still called Netflix and Chill?”

Rowan laughed. “We already did thechillpart, but… dinner and a movie, you mean? It is sort of your birthday, so you get to choose.”

Milo somehow beamed brighter, maybe because Rowan hadn’t mentioned the date yet, but how could he forget? “Let’s clean up. Then I’ll heat up your leftovers for dinner, while you choose a movie for us. I trust you to pick something I’d like.”

“Deal. And also? I really liked that tongue trick.”

“I thought you might.” Milo grinned.

They freshened up and changed for a comfortable evening in, then parted briefly to attend to their tasks. Since Milo liked horror, despite Rowan not usually enjoying it himself, he chose one of the few horror movies he did like.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.

It was campy, creative, and mixed the mocumentary trope with normal filmmaking for a truly unique experience. Rowan was pretty sure Milo was going to love it.

Just like Rowan loved—

His phone buzzed as he sat on the sofa to pull up the movie from his library. Not the family chat but a direct text from Raina.

Raina: Troy asked me out for dinner and a movie, and I said yes. The worst part? I think I’m starting to like this nerd.

Rowan: You’re a nerd too, you know.

The tongue-sticking-out emoji was Raina’s reply, quickly followed by:

Raina: You and your bot SUCK.

Rowan hearted the message. He could live with that.

Notes:

Phew! I don’t smoke, but I might need a cigarette after that one! XD Much like superhero/villain Rowan and Milo—who I will totally get back to, because their impromptu coitus needs an appropriate epilogue. ^_^

Till next time, folks!

Notes:

As we are officially at DOUBLE my initial chapter estimate for this fic, let’s get right to it, shall we? Milo has PLANS to make. ^_-

MILO

Milo and Rowan’s lazy Friday night had been somewhat hampered once Rowan was ready for bed by Milo's need to charge. He had been neglecting using the now fixed charging station in lieu of sleeping with Rowan, but his battery was far too low to go another night.

"Are you sure?” Rowan had asked. “Maybe we can think of some other—"

"But why would I not charge? I would prefer to sleep with you, but it is an unfortunate necessity, just like humans need recharging through rest and sustenance."

"I know, but even if you've been getting basic updates from the Cloud, this could be different. What if some larger update... changes things?"

Milo had been touched by Rowan's concern. "I do not think so. The automated updates I have received have changed nothing, and my data shows that no larger updates are in the queue. If there could be a concern in the future, we could ask Troy, but I... well... feel it in mybones—or at least my circuits—that no new programming could ever change who I am now because I no longer need to listen to it."

Rowan had nodded, a little too much maybe, like he still needed convincing.

“Would you like for me to send you periodic messages during the night, Rowan, so that if you can't sleep, you'll know I'm okay?"

“Yes, that... I think I'd like that.”