Letty tilted his head, “What’ll happen to me?”

Michael caught the oranges, stopping. He hadn’t thought about that. If Sao fell in love with someone else, he’d have no need for a companion. If Letty were a human, he’d be asked to move out, but since he was a machine he’d probably be sold. “…You’ll be sold, I guess.”

“…He won’t give me back to the manufacturer?”

“Nah,” Michael shook his head with a smile. “Sao isn’t that mean. I don’t think he really wants you to get pulled apart.”

“What does he see me as?”

Just then, Sao walked back in. “Ask him yourself,” Michael said, putting the oranges down into the basket.

“Ask me what?” Sao asked, walking to the kitchen. “You two talking bad about me?”

“No, dear baby brother.” Michael shook his head, patting Sao’s. “Just talking about that cute girl you left with.”

“What about her?”

“Do you love her?” Letty asked.

Sao looked to him in surprise, not noticing his brother sneak out of his apartment while he wasn’t looking. “You.. think I love her?”

Letty nodded. “Yes. My intelligence engine of the male and female creatures informs me that you two are having an attraction to each other.”

Sao laughed at the way Letty said it, but shook his head. “I might grow to love her. She’s a really nice girl and yeah, I do like her.”

“Then what am I?”

“You?” Sao asked, making Letty just nod. Sao shrugged, pulling off his coat. “I dunno… A pal. A friend… Why?”

Letty turned off the stovetop, pulling the pan off of it and onto the counter. “I was created to be a companion-“

“Yes, and here by meaning my friend!”

Letty shouted at him, “No! Like a companion as a lover!”

“Who could love something that’s fake!”

Letty grew a shocked expression. Sao looked around, realizing he’d just shouted something mean and cruel. Letty shook his head, looking down and finally said, “Lots of people love things that aren’t real. It’s how humans make things real… Humans imagined this very dish of food and so made it… Does that make it fake, even though you can taste it and consume it?” Letty looked up to him, “Does a child’s toy look fake to the child, or does it appear as a real friend?”

“…Then go to a toy store and become a kid’s toy.”

Letty looked around a bit before asking, “Is that what you want me to do then?” Sao didn’t move. “Mister Hishi?”

“Go.” Sao said softly. “Take your stuff and leave.”

Sao ate in silence that night, slightly wondering where Letty had gone to with a small blue duffle bag of his stuff and a coat over him to keep warm.

It wasn’t until a couple days later that Sao heard of Letty from his girl friend Carin. “I saw your roommate.”

“Oh yeah, where?”

“He was standing in front of that kid’s toy store in the mall.” She said. “He seems to be working there.”

“Good for him.”

She leaned closer to Sao, “Did you two have a fight because of me?”

Sao shook his head, “Nah. He said he wanted to aspire to become something real.”