Spoiler Alert

Content: Leo and his family are still save at the Hawkins household (minus Joe) and they still try to bring Max back properly. Mattie finds out that it is Leo's birthday and that he hates being reminded of having a birthday.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. Furthermore I made all the technical stuff up and kept it as vague as possible, because I have no idea what I'm talking about.

It's his birthday so she decides to do something nice for him. Maybe bake a cake. Although Mattie knows that she can't bake well. She had tried once before, for mother's day and it should have been a surprise. Instead it had been an absolute disaster and the surprise was that they almost had to call the firemen. But this time her mum could actually give her some advice.

She would send Toby with his bike to the shops and hope he would bring back the right ingredients. Especially the white chocolate was important. She had heard how Niska had told Sophie that white chocolate was disgusting in her eyes and so she had always given it to him. Maybe his favourite would cheer him up. Not that anything much could cheer him up nowadays with Max still in a comatose state.

They had directed all of his power and a lot of power from Leo unto his brain function and now his software was trying to repair itself. That was another reason why a cake might be a good thing. He needed the energy. He drained the energy from his Synth half and put it into Max's recovery system; more often than he probably should he spent the last few days on minimum energy and barely took the time to charge properly. And then his human half didn't seem to get much rest either.

He barely ate and if he did he didn't even look what he was eating. He barely slept always just drifted away on some chairs next to his brother. Mattie had found him once asleep on the bench in the garden when it was freezing. She could not let him sleep outside even if she had covered him up with a few blankets, they still weren't sure if the people who chased them were still on the wrong track. She had to wake him up and get him inside where he did not even try to go back to sleep.

Not even Mia, aka the mum, could get some sense into him at this point. Laura often had talks with her from mother to mother and anyone could see how worried Mia was. They all were. Except for Sophie maybe who didn't quite understand what was going on but was glad that Mia and her family were still around, because she loved playing with Niska. However Toby who seemed to be quiet fond of Max sat sometimes beside Leo and just talked to Max in the hope it would help him cure himself id he could hear that his family was near him.

If it hadn't been for Mia and Fred, Mattie never even had found out about the birthday. Laura had asked them about their father and how they became a family and Fred had told them a few stories of things they had done together. One story in which Leo was especially grumpy and bad mannered had revolved about the fact that they could not decide if they should celebrate his original birthday or his creation date and had ended up with all of them having to glue almost every piece of porcelain back together in the night without their father noticing. Apparently Leo still became extra grumpy on both of the dates and that was when Fred had made a joke about how they should put all the Hawkins family china away on Wednesday.

And today was Wednesday and it was one of Leo's birthdays, though Mattie didn't know which one. And though they had warned her about not letting him know that she knew about his birthday, she couldn't help herself. It was such a hard time for them all and maybe a little cake or a bit of fun would distract them all for a bit. And high amounts of colourful sugar and fat even if they'd fail to distract him or cheer him up, would still give him some energy.

Toby was coming back from the shops with the ingredients. She hadn't told him why she was baking cake but maybe he thought that it was her way of distracting herself. Her mum, who did know what it was all about, had offered her to bake the cake herself, but for some reason it didn't feel right. Mattie had the feeling that this one time she wanted to bake something for someone else and she wanted it to work out and be a success and she wanted it to be all made by herself. She had received one of those weird mum looks that Laura was sending into her direction lately. She didn't even bother to remind Mattie of her last baking adventure. She just nodded and offered her to answer any of Mattie's questions about baking.

"It's a bit dark on the top but Toby tried some crumbs that fell off and he said it tastes good". Leo looks at her in confusion.

"What is that?". Mattie sighs.

"It's caviar on toast. Oh no wait. It's a piece of cake". She still holds the plate with the enormous slice of cake under his nose.

"Yeah I can see that this is cake but why are you offering it to me?". Mattie shrugs.

"I don't know? Maybe because I made cake and everybody is getting a slice? And it's apparently something called food. You should try it now and then". Leo looks suspicious and takes the plate.

"What's this between the layers?".

"Just some white chocolate and I didn't poison it so no need to get send it to a laboratory and get it analysed", she says to Leo who looks like he's trying to anatomise the cake with his fork.

"Someone told you, haven't they?" Mattie knows this voice on him and she knows he's about to get very moody.

"Nobody told me anything. I just tried to be nice? Will you just eat the goddamn cake?"

She leaves the living room and steps in the garden. Sometimes she feels just so annoyed by his reactions. He's always suspicious, always with his guard up and then so often moody. But she knows that there is another side to him, she's seen it more than once. A nicer, even funny side. But not since they couldn't bring Max back properly and had to place him in this coma. And all they could do was sitting around him day and night hoping for improvement. But it was mostly Fred and Leo who kept watch over him.

Niska and Mia were often helping Laura with stuff as a thank you for the refuge. Sometimes Mattie needed some air to escape the bad atmosphere inside the house. Though they were all trying to be optimistic, the chances for Max's recovery got worse every day.

It's almost dark outside. Mattie who has spent the last two hours checking up Max's state on her laptop decides to get some air. The states are looking good but they haven't changed over the last few days, even though Leo had given extra energy just two hours ago.

Fred and Mia sit on the couch in the living room and talk to Laura. Toby, Sophie and Niska are upstairs playing special agents with Sophie's Barbie Dolls and special agent T-Rex. There is just nothing to do for her inside instead of working on her laptop and the baking from the morning. She sits on the garden bench. She has always liked this spot. You could not see the others inside the house and they could not see you. When thinks had been worse with Laura Mattie had often sat here, hidden from everyone, protected to be seen from the very outline of the house.

"How is he?" Mattie jumps and looks around.

"Down here." She takes a look behind the bench and finds that it is Leo who is lying on the ground watching up to the sky.

"Jesus Christ Leo! You almost gave me a heart attack!" Leo looks apologetic but doesn't bother to get up. Mattie sighs. "What are you even doing here?" Leo shrugs.

"I like this spot. It's good for escaping the house for a while and I can not be seen from here by neighbours or anyone else. And the stars are about to come out". Mattie nods that's the second best part about this favourite place of her, being able to get lost in the stars. She looks down at Leo.

"Leo the grass is wet, you'll catch your death. Have you been out here the whole two hours…in a t-shirt?" He nods.

"Don't tell Mia she'll go ballistic on me". Mattie rolls her eyes.

"Probably for a reason. Now get up there and go inside you must be freezing." Leo shakes his head.

"I can't go back in there, just not right now." Mattie looks into his face prepared to convince him when she notices that there are tear trails on his cheeks. Her face softens.

"Well at least sit on the bench. Or otherwise you'll really get sick. I'll get you a blanket."

"It's my birthday, you know?" Mattie nods.

"I know", she replies. They sit on the bench next to each other, Leo wrapped up in a blanket, Mattie with an extra sweatshirt.

"So they have told you". Mattie nods again.

"Yeah they did, but not on purpose". Leo does not say anything but it seems to her that he's brooding about something.

"So the cake…?", he says after five minutes of silence. "Yeah it was a birthday cake. I'm sorry, they told me that you don't like to be remembered of your birthday, but I didn't listen". Leo looks at her and she just knows that he is evaluating to tell her something about himself.

"No it's… you don't have to apologise. It's just…", he stops talking, his mind drifting off to something that seems to haunt him. He shakes his head and then looks at her, a slight smile on his face. "Well thank you for the cake anyways. It was really good. I don't think that someone other than Mia has ever made cake for me".

"No problem. I just thought you might like it". Leo nods and says "thank you" once more before they again sit in silence for a while. Until Mattie can not hold the question back any longer.

"Which one is it?" Leo who is lost in thought gets pulled out of it and seems to be confused for a second.

"Which one is what?", he replies. "Your birthday. I mean I don't even know which the one is that you count and I just wondered…" she stops herself mid- sentence. Leo sighs deeply.

"It's the day on which I was born. You could say what's still left … the human parts of myself …", he chuckles bitterly as if he just thought of a very good joke, " well my dad used to call it my birthday and he forgot it every year after my accident. Whereas creation day, oh that was something different. He always insisted on a big creation day party for myself. One time he even declared me as his masterpiece not his son, but his best piece of work." Leo stops speaking and Mattie understands that he can't speak anymore because he's trying to choke back tears. He looks away from her into the hedges.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked", she mutters. He doesn't react. His shoulders are shaking visibly from trying to hold back his emotions. Mattie does not know how to comfort him so she takes his hand and squeezes it slightly. He squeezes it back and after a while when the shaking stops, but he still does not look at her, Mattie lays her head down on his shoulder.

"I'm really, really sorry", she mutters. Leo sighs.

"You don't have to apologise. I probably should talk about this someday, but…but not just today okay?".

"I understand", says Mattie and she means it. They sit there for yet another while, their hand now intertwined, her head resting on his shoulder and by now his head leans against hers. They do not talk and they do not move. Leo still hasn't looked back at her; they both are looking at the night sky.

"Mattie! Leo! Where are you two?" It is Toby who steps out into the garden. Mattie almost jumps, she must have dosed off. Her head, up 'til now, was still resting on Leo's shoulder and he apparently has put some of his blanket around her shoulders before he dosed off as well.

"Mattie?! Leo?!", Toby shouts again, this time he's walking into their direction. Leo opens his eyes, looking confused for a second when Mattie quickly lets go off his hand and moves to the other side of the bench.

"We're here!", she replies. Toby walks around the corner.

"What are you doing here? We thought you were inside the house. Mum and Mia almost got a heart attack when they wanted to say goodnight and they couldn't find any of you." He stares at them and notices that something is weird, that Mattie's hair looks flat on one side and that Leo's blanket lies partly on the bench, they must have sat really close together.

"What were you two up too?", he asks jokingly but then notices that both of them blush a little. "No way!", he exclaims , "so you were up to something? Maybe a bit of k-i-s-s-i-n-g in the moonlight?" he grins at them. Mattie stands up from the bench and rolls her eyes at Toby.

"Oh for Christ sake Toby, of course not, grow up! Now go inside and tell the motherly unit that you found us safe and sound. We'll be with you in a minute". Toby just grins at her and Mattie blushes even more while trying to look stern. She doesn't even know why she's blushing, she and Leo weren't kissing after all. She turns to him.

"I'm sorry he's sometimes like that". Leo smiles slightly.

"Brothers, eh?", he replies, seemingly unsure if he should address the situation between them.

"We should go inside", says Mattie chewing on her bottom lip like she always does when she's thinking about something. Leo just nods and stands up as well. They do not move just look at each other in awkward silence.

"We should go in the minute is definitely up". Mattie nods in agreement but doesn't move. Neither does Leo.

"I…", he begins and then stops again, "thank you again for the cake." He smiles at her and she smiles back. Then, to their both surprise, she makes a few steps towards him and kisses him briefly on the cheek.

"Happy Birthday Leo", she whispers before she takes a few steps back and turns around, walking towards the house.

"Mattie! Leo!", it's Toby again and this time he sounds even more urgent. Mattie rolls her eyes.

"For Christ sake Toby we're on our way! Would you chill for a second?! It's not like we were up to something or anything" She looks back at Leo who looks amused and a little bit flustered.

Toby stick's his head out of the garden door, looking red with excitement. "No Leo, Mattie, it's Max! I think he's waking up!" Mattie turns towards Leo.

"I meant to tell you… I had an idea after you gave him the energy and I…I tried something…", she can't even finish the sentence because he passes her and storms into the kitchen.

There was hugging. A lot of hugging. Mattie was sure that if her father was here Leo would even hug him. Max had woken up and he was as good as new. Her idea had worked. There was hugging and crying and now Leo quickly checked up on Max's vitals via laptop. Everyone had hugged Mattie except for Leo, who was the only one who did even know that she had tried something new on Max.

By the look on his face and the speed of him typing into his laptop, she knew that he was also checking for what she had done and he would eventually find out what a risk she had taken. Mattie smiled at Max like everyone else did, but she was worried about how Leo would react. All the happy chattering stopped suddenly when Leo exclaimed: "You didn't!" Everybody turned around in confusion to look at Leo and then at Mattie. Mattie could not tell from the look on his face if he was angry or not. Mia asks Leo what was wrong.

"Nothing's wrong". Before she can react in any way Leo jumps out of his chair, crosses the room and embraces her tightly.
"You are a genius, you are! You brought him back! You did it!", he exclaims and presses a kiss on her hair, and then on her forehead and then on both of her cheeks. She wouldn't even be surprised if he would press a kiss on her nose. He takes a step back, his hands grasping her shoulders and he seems to beam with pride and joy.

Before anyone of the others can grasp what he is even talking about, he kisses Mattie on the lips, just to hug her again afterwards. It was just a brief kiss but it makes her feel all tingly inside. She can't see her but Mattie just knows that her mum gives her one of those mum looks again, and is probably the only one who isn't baffled by his open portrayal of affection.
When he finally tells the others about what's going on, after he mutters "Thank you" and "you're a genius" over and over again into her ear; Mattie gets even more hugged and kissed, from humans and synths alike. But Leo stays the only one who kisses her on the lips. And a few days later she returns the favour.