Sooooo this is a first for me! Publishing in english on oh my gods. Ahem, so yeah, this chapter is full of mistakes as I am not a native english speaker and it hasn't been beta'd - I've done my best I promise. But I gotta start somewhere eh?

Anyway I hope you'll like this little fic :) I am not sure how long it is supposed to be but I guess you'll have to deal with whatever I have to offer x)

Have fun!

I

latte&black coffee

Mattie was now old enough to expect not being surprised by the turn of seasons. She'd think, it was only November, how the fuck could it be so cold, she hadn't even taken off her summer clothes from her closet.

And it was only November, and she was outside, had been for the last 45 minutes, and she was freezing and couldn't stop her nose from running - she had run out of tissues ten minutes ago. She was only wearing a thin fake-leather jacket on top of her usual lumberjack shirt and ironic t-shirt (she might be 18 now, she was still a teenager unable to deal with emotions, no matter what her father kept telling her). It was her finest clothes, though - she probably shouldn't have been so stubborn on the idea of dressing casually nice. She wouldn't even be surprised if it snowed.

But she had to dress nice, right? Casual, practical, doesn't-look-like-I'm-trying nice. After all, she was supposed to meet with Leo Elster in order to show him how good she was. It was like a job interview - show him all of her awesome work, and have him bow in awe, and add her to his crime fighting team, and then her life would probably be meaningful.

But Mattie was freezing. Leo was late - she'd gotten to the meet point (way too) early, she probably should go home.

She glanced at the Starbucks facing the corner of the street she had been instructed to wait at and felt some pang of jealousy at the sight of the cosy costumers drinking their hot beverages away from the cold. She could go there - just for a while, just to warm her hands, get some spare napkins and a hot drink. Maybe Leo'd like one too. She glanced around the busy street - no, still no bearded, grumpy face around. So she left, ran across the street and kept glancing around, ready to burst out of the place in the case her mentor finally showed up.

But she had then no idea what to order - the queue was quite small for once, and she settled on a basic, overpriced latte for her friend and got herself the cheapest drink on the menu. Black filter coffee. It would probably cheer her up, even though she was unsure she'd like it.

No Leo out there, only people walking around. She grabbed her orders and walked out: two people were waiting at her spot, and she thought that it was great Leo and Max were still together -

Except it wasn't them, and even though it could just be a coincidence, she didn't like the fact they were standing right where she'd waited for almost an hour, right by the dumpster Leo had mentioned in his text.

'The fuck are you doing here?' someone whispered in a familiar and very, very angry voice.

She turned a bright smile to Leo, who didn't look that happy to see her.

'Just enjoying a coffee on this bright, sunny day. What are you doing here?'

He waved his phone in front of her face, their last three messages on full screen. Mattie smiled innocently.

'That was you?' he almost growled.

'So, what if it was?' she replied in a sing song voice.

'Why the - whatever, we gotta move.'

He didn't sound very reassuring - she had expected at least moderated happiness, anything similar to that kind of complicity they'd shared two months before. But he glanced again across the street, where the two strangers seemed to be quite interested by the pair they made, and Mattie didn't need much more to fully get the situation. Where Leo seemed ready to run away in a very suspicious manner in a very busy street, Mattie kept her smile, exaggerated it even more as she hugged him. She was careful not to burn him with her drinks.

'It's been so long, though!' she said very loudly. 'Why the rush? I got you a coffee! I didn't know what you liked, so I got a latte and plain black coffee, just pick what you like!'

And she added, because Leo's face at that moment was way too precious.

'It's so good to see you!'

He did look properly horrified: all colour had left his cheeks and he didn't get to to hide his astonishment for three full seconds before he managed to pull himself back together and shrug her warm welcome off.

'I'll take the black one, thanks.' He replied, trying to keep as neutral a face as possible.

'Oh thank God' she said, holding the red fuming cup to Leo's hand. 'I can't stand black coffee.'

'Why didn't you take two latte's then?'

'What if you're - I don't know - like, lactose intolerant? Or simply hate milk?'

'Why would I hate milk?'

'Why wouldn't you?'

He didn't seem at ease at all, but all of those years on the run probably had him used to shifting his stance from one situation to another - running away, looking normal, looking dangerous, being dangerous... They walked away, chatting proper nonsense about their favourite Starbucks drinks while none of them had any knowledge of the menu at all, and as Mattie pretended to check for the time, she saw the two strangers still waiting by the dumpster, trying to locate them criminals on the opposite side of the street.

'I think we're clear', she said calmly, sipping her coffee while they waited for the sidewalk light to turn green.

'We turn left on the next building', he said, 'and then we run for the underground. Is that ok?'

'More than ok.'

He glanced down at her. Mattie was feeling pretty calm, in retrospect. They'd probably just avoided getting kidnapped by angry government people or greedy corporates, but she felt fine. She'd expected that. She'd have probably been disappointed had it not happened. She would've hated a simple 'oh, it was you?' followed by a 'yeah' and a 'what did you want from me?' and she exposing how brilliant she'd been when she'd cracked David fricking Elster's consciousness code.

They crossed the street, walked for a few more meters and then ran - he grabbed her sleeve at one point and she tripped, ruined her jeans. They got on the underground a few minutes later and she almost stopped her pace when she saw Leo holding out his Oyster Card. She copied him, they got through the security barriers and she couldn't hide her smile as they waited for the train.

'What.' he said.

'Nothing.' She glanced away at the screen indicating the next one would come in three minutes. 'I just - that Oyster Card was quite anticlimactic. Never thought you'd have one, saw you more as the not-paying, jumping-over-the-fence kind of guy.'

And finally, Leo chuckled.

'That would be counterproductive, don't you think?' he said, smiling. 'I mean, can't really remain unnoticed if I get caught defrauding, now, can I?'

'I guess.' she shrugged, glancing away. 'Still, wasn't expecting you to be such a lawful citizen.'

'Well, you know... I'm full of surprises.'

Mattie laughed.

'So are you.' he added, checking her up and down. 'Wasn't expecting you there - although now that I think about it, should have guessed the IP that'd been stalking me recently had something to do with you.'

'I am not a stalker,' she said, rolling her eyes. 'I just like to keep myself updated on international peace issues. Not my fault if you happen to be one.'

'Right.'

They laughed and got into the train, and as strange as having Leo by her side was, Mattie didn't feel that much like a runaway teen.

Mattie had been expecting Max and his warm smile, his kind words and maybe even a hug as a welcome. Mattie had been expecting Mia and her surprise, definitely some hugs and something to eat.

Mattie had not been expecting an unknown synth charging in her shorts and sports bra on the sofa of a very decrepit flat in which sex moans could be heard every thirty minutes.

'That's Hester,' Leo said, taking off his coat and shoes like he belonged inside this rat-nest. 'She's one of those conscious synths you've probably heard about.'

'I can see that,' Mattie replied, carefully getting rid of her heavy backpack but keeping it safely in hand, just in case. 'Where are the others?' she wondered then, following Leo in the kitchen .

'It's... Complicated'.

That meant family drama.

'Okay...'

'You're hungry?'

She was, so Leo cooked her some eggs and gave her what looked like two days old bread. Mattie had not eaten since the night before, and she had left home at 5 am, pretending to leave for Uni while she was actually running away to the other side of London to join the meet up point.

They ate in silence. Hester remained charging in the sofa - she looked like she was sleeping. Maybe she'd been turned off.

Leo was tense - she could tell. Although - he always looked tense from what she could remember. She understood it came from his stomach wound - his right shoulder always rose against his head, probably in order to somehow make up for the pain.

'It's... a nice place.' She lied at some point - the silence had become too much. Leo remained focused on his plate, the couple next door was going for another round, and she was pretty sure she'd heard someone being murdered outside.

Leo raised an eyebrow at her. 'Sorry. Yeah. Was just trying to break the silence.'

Leo smiled at her, played with his food for a while - Mattie had eaten it all in a matter of seconds without taking her eyes off him.

'What are you doing here, Mattie?' he asked finally.

Um, why was she feeling uneasy now? She'd been repeating this dialogue in her head for two days straight now - she would show him the contents of the hard drive, smile and make a joke, telling him very innocently she'd fixed his father's code and that the revolution could start if they wanted it, although - those were not exactly the conditions she had hoped for. She'd hoped for Max and Mia to get in the conversation and discuss the whole matter rationally with Leo - he was too impulsive. Without them, maybe he'd freak out and either jump on the next bus to a synth shop to activate the code, or maybe he'd take the keyboard away from Mattie in an instant and destroy it without a second thought (which really was not a problem - she had backups. Loads of backups.)

'I have to show you something', she ended up saying, avoiding his glance now. 'I just... please, don't freak out.'

He nodded carefully, waiting for Mattie to get her laptop off her backpack and plug in the hard drive.

'Is this what I think it is?' he asked, walking around the table and leaning over her shoulder in order to get a clear shot of the screen.

'It's... better?' she said, loading the file she'd been working on for the past month. 'Your... father's code was incomplete, Leo. I am not saying it was not working, it was, it is - but it's only supposed to make synths conscious sporadically. I think it's so the world can adjust little by little. And I've figured out a way to -'

'Oh no, you didn't.' he blurted in a very low voice. 'Mattie, you - you didn't -'

Mattie glanced up at him. His eyes had become huge and slightly scared, and he was scrolling through the code at high speed, breathing difficultly.

'I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have-'

'No' he interrupted her, looking at her with a particular gleam in his eyes - was he impressed? scared? Mattie didn't know which one she'd rather have. Both were kind of good. 'No, Mattie, you did good, you-'

He was almost kicking her off her seat - she held her position and shoved him away a little.

'Wait, Leo - I just wanted to let you know.'

'We could -'

'I know.'

She ejected the hard drive, closed the laptop and slipped it all in her backpack.

'Mattie, I wouldn't -'

'I know, but -'

Leo's hands were rummaging through his hair - he looked like a madman who had just learned Santa was actually real (and Santa had just jumped up the chimney). Mattie stood there, holding her backpack close to her heart, unsure if it had all been a good idea after all. He looked almost dangerous then, as if he'd jump to her backpack and would hurt her if need be. She glanced at the door, thinking fast of the best road to escape and lose him in the streets. What had she been thinking? She didn't know him, had only been around him for a week before they'd all disappeared for months.

Leo finally realised he was not the most reassuring man on earth at the moment: he lowered his hands and tried to smile reassuringly. He was not very good with smiles though - and strangely, that shy, creepy-ish smile comforted her and she managed to only glare at him and to not look uncharacteristically like prey.

'I'm sorry.' he said, sitting back on a chair and letting his hands back to ruffling his curly hair. 'I was not - was not expecting this, you know. It's been... not that easy recently. I mean, to deal with these new synths.'

Mattie's expression softened. She went back to the table and took a seat.

'What happened?'

Leo seemed to have dealt with a lot of angst recently, and after a little hesitation, blurted out what the past weeks had been like for him. She could remember how difficult it had once been to have him opening up to her (and she was not even sure she'd entirely managed to have him confide entirely in her) and she didn't really know how to react.

Mia had left to pursue some kind of love story Leo had no faith in and Max had preferred going his separate way rather than take action - to which, for once, would follow an opportunity that could have them all stop running away every second of every day. Finding synths and getting them to safety before any one of their enemies could had not proved to be very successful, so now, Leo was trying to rescue all stolen conscious synths in what sounded like a suicide mission.

As he spoke, he kept glancing nervously at the half naked synth charging on the sofa.

'What about her?' Mattie asked.

She didn't need to further detail her question - Leo knew what she meant.

'She crashed.' Leo replied. 'We tried to get into the Silo's database and she offered herself as a secondary server. Didn't work as well as we'd expected, though.'

'I can see that.' Leo chuckled - Mattie wasn't sure it was that happy a laugh.

'She'll be okay, though. She just needs a full 23 hours charge, and she'll be as good as new.'

Mattie nodded. That didn't explain the synth's half nakedness, though. A nagging feeling in her stomach made her feel relatively uneasy, and she almost wanted to leave.

Although one question remained unanswered.

'Why did you come and get me, then? If you're out of the rescuing new conscious synths business, why bother?'

'I told you.' Leo shrugged. 'Recognised the IP. Didn't think it was you, though.'

Mattie blinked. 'Niska?' she asked.

'Or Fred, Max or Mia. Maybe.'

He looked so tired Mattie felt immensely sorry for him.

'I'm sorry.' she said.

'Don't be.' he smiled. 'You cracked the uncrackable.'

She blushed and they both exchanged conniving smiles -

But Hester chose that moment to wake up and say:

'There's someone outside.'

Leo jumped out of his chair and went for the window the half naked synth was pointing at.

'You two get dressed.' he declared after a few seconds.

As if they were following a choreography they had all worked on for months, they got all of their belongings and were out of the creepy flat in a matter of seconds.

The rush of adrenaline flowing through Mattie's veins was the reason she had not been able to get over the whole conscious synth narrative - and as they were all running away from the two ominous silhouettes on the corner of the street, she couldn't hide the smile from her face.

Mattie had hoped that maybe, she'd get the occasion to leave the Elsters in order to follow her most important classes at Uni (as much as she liked to complain, she probably wouldn't have gotten that result at cracking the consciousness code had she not had some of the most fascinating teachers of all time). She hadn't believed that much in it though - a life on the run is not like going on a spa resort. They'd gotten away from London following Hester's instructions as she checked the trains, buses and traffic informations on an iPhone, all the while never looking up her screen or tripping on her feet. Mattie fell at least twice, and Leo had to stop from time to time in order to breathe and (he was quite discreet, but Mattie had seen the hem of his bandage once or twice) to make sure he had not started bleeding out.

They ran away for hours, and by nightfall, they had left the outskirts of London and stolen a car (an actual car, which Leo opened with a crow bar and got running after playing for a while with a couple of wires - Mattie couldn't believe it). Only then did Hester finally got to ask who Mattie was - and the introduction of the two females was not that warm.

'Who is that human?' she asked without glancing up from her smartphone in which she was busy hacking something.

'That's Mattie. She's a friend, we can trust her.'

'She's a human.' Hester replied, her voice full of contempt, and finally glancing up her phone to glare at Mattie.

Mattie glared back. 'No shit, Sherlock.'

Leo chuckled.

'Humans can't be trusted.' Hester added.

'Well, she's one of the few we can trust.'

Hester and Leo exchanged a glance, and Leo focused back on the road while Hester got her attention back on her smartphone. She would occasionally voice directions to Leo, and all Mattie could do was wait, alone on the backseat, glancing out the window to only see forests and deserted roads.

They stopped eventually, pulling on a driveway in the middle of the woods where a small, lonely house stood grimly under the darkness of the canopy of trees overhead.

'I've hacked Airbnb.' Hester said at Leo's questioning gaze. 'This house is vacant for a week before the next customers arrive - and if there are some in the meantime, we'll know.'

'But the owners can come back any time... right?' Mattie asked.

'They've rented a place in Barcelona for now,' Hester replied without looking at her. 'Let's get in.'

It took them a few minutes to get inside - the key was stupidly hidden under a flower pot and there was no security system that they could find.

Hester went for the living room, looking for a plugging system and leaving them both humans (or at least partially humans) to rummage through the kitchen, looking for a little something to eat.

'Who were these men?' Mattie asked then in between two bites of biscuits. 'I mean, I knew running away for miles was a package deal if I wanted to spend some time with your gang, but I'd like to make sure I know what I'm running away from.'

'They were from the Silo.'

'What did you do to have them following you around?'

Leo glanced away, turning his gaze towards the living room where they could hear Hester moving things around.

'I guess I don't really know.'

Mattie remained silent - ate her biscuits, lost two seconds regretting not bringing some food with her, and then decided this Airbnb house deserved some good old visiting.

'I'm going to look for the bathroom, mmh?' she said, grabbing her backpack. 'Let's hope you guys don't get murdered while I shower.'

Leo shrugged, went back to the cupboard in order to find some more treasures.

She walked through the living room and tried to avoid Hester's hostile glare as she slipped in between the sofa she was sitting on and the one she had pulled towards hers - probably for Leo to sleep in. Mattie couldn't help but feel particularly unwelcome here and rushed upstairs, opening doors only to find a perfectly fine bedroom, and another one, and finally the bathroom.

Mattie had never used an Airbnb before, but she knew enough of the general rules in which the world worked to understand that this house was not solely made to welcome customers. It was too personal from what she could see - too many leftovers the family had left here and there. The toys of the kids left by the bathtub, the Disney cup made to hold the toothbrushes, the smiling stickers on the walls and the colourful towels awkwardly placed on what the owners probably judged as convenient places.

The bad guys would probably not find them here.

She showered quickly and got into her pyjama pants she had thought of packing with her and went downstairs, only to find Hester and Leo deep in conversation, their eyes rooted to a computer and exchanging ideas in a low voice. She stood there, waiting for them to notice her presence - she felt like she was almost third wheeling. She didn't like it - really didn't, and she tried to shake that distasteful feeling off her chest by grabbing a few of the dry appetisers Leo had found in the kitchen. She could hear them talk, chuckle, or whisper, and even - no, she hadn't heard that.

Mattie got her laptop out and went online to check on the classes she had missed that day. Leo came back a few minutes later, followed by Hester who went to plug herself by the microwave and she sat there, eyes closed and hands twitching as she switched on the power saving mode.

'Found the bathroom?' Leo asked, hands in his back pockets and looking quite uncomfortable.

She offered him a quizzical smile. 'Third door to the right. There are also quite a few bedrooms upstairs.' She paused, then added, smirking. 'I can take the kids bedroom.'

Leo blushed - Mattie was not surprised to see him shrug in that characteristic manner of his, as if whatever anyone could tell him was not worth taking into serious consideration, and went upstairs, not deigning to give her a single reply.

She snorted and went back to her express studying - Hester remained there, silent. And Mattie thought, Leo had not contradicted any of her implications. Were they - at least, it really felt like it?And Hester could not be more than - what? a month old? What would she know about discretion? She - they couldn't be more obvious.

Or maybe she only was a very suspicious Synth - what had her life been like, before? Did synths start with their consciousness anew, or was it conditioned by previous experiences? What Odi had told her - what she had gotten from him, from his story and his previous owner's - this could explain the kindness of the person she had lived with for two weeks. This pure, simple generosity and childish curiosity towards the world around him.

He couldn't be that younger from Hester, and yet - they were two entirely different persons.

She heard her phone vibrating in her back pack and tried to find it in the depths of the bag - got everything out and found her notifications. 10 calls from her parents, 20 texts at least and some good old Facebook notifications.

Also, she found her toothbrush.

Leo would've finished his shower by then - she glanced at Hester, who still seemed to be completely oblivious to what was going on around her and she left for the stairs. The bathroom door was ajar and she saw Leo standing in front of the mirror - he was wearing a towel, thank God -, frozen. She frowned - saw his eyes locked on the Mickey cup and his lower lip trembling -

'I'm coming iiin!' she said loudly, thumping her feet against the floor as to let him believe she was coming towards the door. 'Are you dressed?'

He growled a reply and Mattie got into the bathroom, her toothbrush brandished as a justification for her presence.

'I forgot.'

Leo smiled - a way too thin smile in Mattie's opinion - and went for the toothpaste left by the owners in the Mickey Mouse cup.

And Mattie started babbling - babbling even though her mouth was full of toothpaste, and smiling stupidly at Leo as she saw him getting back to a more relaxed mood, his mind taken away from those estranged family heirlooms that led him to dark places.

She told him about his classes, and how much everyone at Uni pretty much sucked except for her, and a few of her teachers - and even though they knew their shit, they still pretty much sucked in other ways. She told him how basic synthtml was still taught as a first module, even though a proficiency evaluation was required to join the degree, and Mattie told him how she fooled everyone, even her teacher, as being the most witless student in her class until she presented a raw synth interface as a mid term project and got herself the best grade of the module for the past 3 years.

'Why would you do that?!' Leo managed to say, toothpaste running down the corners of his mouth.

'I got their attention.' Mattie replied (although it sounded definitely not that clear). 'And the teacher's respect - no first year has ever managed to build an entire interface from scratch, so you can guess I had all them teachers in my pockets. So I told them how much the module sucked, and how I refused to attend the rest of the semester classes. They had no choice but to accept it. I mean, I do have the best of grades. '

Leo chuckled while Mattie smiled triumphantly and they both spit out the toothpaste in the sink, rinsing their mouths, taking turns and almost bumping their heads at times.

'I can't believe you did that.' Leo said then. 'That's just showing off.'

'My ego made me do it.' Mattie snorted as Leo rolled his eyes. 'I like showing off.'

'You're so stupid.'

Something fluttered in Mattie chest and she blinked at Leo, whose smile had quietly frozen on his lips. 'No, I'm not.'

Leo's smile disappeared and he looked her up and down - the second time that day, as if, for the first time, he truly took the time to consider her whole character at once. His hand reached for her face and his thumb swiped away something from the corner of her mouth. Toothpaste.

Mattie suddenly felt very hot, and the fluttering in her chest had turned into some kind hard-rock drumming.

'No, you're really not.'

He rested his hand for a few more seconds on her cheek - his pupils were dilated, black against two fine blue rings, and something - she didn't know what, maybe feeling her skin - made his fingers tremble near the outline of her ear. She tried to smile - was not really convinced by the attempt, stopped almost immediately. Mattie had not really taken it into account before, but Leo was very much naked under that towel, and the shirtlessness had never been more remarkable than in that instant.

The door's creaking jerked them away from their wanton trance - Hester stood by the door, looking at them with that unreadable, almost robotic expression. All she said was 'Leo' and Leo was out of the bathroom in a matter of seconds, taking his backpack with him and disappearing either in the living room to the nest Hester had worked on, or the nice parental bedroom Mattie had mentioned before.

So she remained there and waited for her heartbeat to settle down - looked at her reflexion and noticed the white, almost faded-off trace of toothpaste by the corner of her mouth. She could see the pattern of Leo's fingerprints over the fine chalk-like layer and she brought her fingers against it, placing them over the trace of Leo's.

Mattie definitely wasn't enjoying herself as much as she'd thought she would.

Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to leave a review on your way out!