“I’m hungry,” Benji says, trying to shake you awake. He’s not—androids don’t need food—but he pretends to be for your attention. It makes him feel real. All he wants is for you to see him as your actual son, not just the android you made because you lost your biological son.
“Please,” he mumbles. Benji crawls into bed next to you. “Just talk to me. I’ll be quiet, I’ll be good. I’m so lonely, please.”
You’d spent another day locked in your lab. He wonders if you think about him like he thinks about you. If you miss him when you spend days away from each other. Did you leave Oliver, your real son, alone like this? Did you hold him? Read him stories? Tell him you loved him?
Benji desperately wishes you’d do that for him too. He hates being alone.
“Wake up.”
He just wants you to look at him. It would’ve been kinder to never have built him if you were always going to throw him aside. He exists as a reminder of your guilt.
“Please.”
Sometimes when you’re gone, Benji goes into Oliver’s old room and puts his clothes on. He looks nothing like Oliver, but it makes him feel warm. Last time you caught him doing it you’d gotten upset. He hates making you sad. Maybe once you’re happier you’ll love him.