To ensure that nobody catches me fooling around, I make sure to close the door with my card. Then, I walk to my bag and bring out the legendary plastic bag.

“Come here.”

I signal Lily to follow me as I proceed toward the rear of the room.

thump

tap tap tap

She follows me with small steps after sliding from the sofa. I bring her and the Lego to the farthest corner of the room, hiding them behind a partition.

“Do you know what’s Lego?”

“Lego?”

She tilts her head and blinks a couple of times. I put down the plastic bag and spill Lego bricks onto the floor.

I take a lego plate and put it between me and Lily. To show her the basics, I randomly grab 2x1 bricks and connect them to the plate.

“The idea is that all parts can be connected and you can build anything you want.”

“Oh!”

She follows my actions with glittering interest. After completing a random square out of 2x1 bricks, I turn toward Lily.

“Do you understand?”

“E-eh? O-of course!”

She shifts her eyes away with a nervous face. Such a cute little liar, I’m inclined to pat her a little.

“Here, take this brick and try connecting it on top of what I built.”

I point toward a random 2x1 brick. She stretches her small hand and clumsily picks it up, after clumsily letting it slip through her fingers a few times.

She turns toward my random creation and eyes it intently.

“Gu...”

She twists her lips in discomfort, occasionally throwing short, nervous glances at me.

“Try putting this brick here for example.”

“I-I know!”

She puffs her cheeks and quickly brings her fingers toward the destination.

“...”

She freezes. Her finger is resting on top of the brick, but she doesn’t do anything with it.

“Hey...”

I try to wave in front of her face, but there’s no reaction.

clack

The brick finally connects. Lily is freed from the daze and looks at me with puppy eyes.

“Good job.”

“H-hmph.”

She hides her embarrassed face after I pat her.

“Now that you understand the basics, try building something.”

“Hm?”

She tilts her head with a blank expression. Seems like it was too early to rejoice about her success...

Simply connecting bricks isn’t nearly enough to play Lego. She needs the creativity and curiosity which make kids fiddle with lego. How many of these does Lily posses...?

“By connecting bricks this way, you can build whatever you wish.”

I grab more bricks and place them on the plate to complete the second floor of the construct. I let Lily fill in some of the parts as well, to make sure that her first success wasn’t a fluke.

Similarly to word chain, she freezes every time but her freezes grow thinner and thinner.

“Do you understand? You can build lots of things this way.”

“Gu...”

She looks at me with a cute dumb face, unsure of what I expect from her.

“Um, try building something on your own.”

I point toward the bricks flowing from within the bag. She shifts her eyes between my creation and the stray bricks, looking puzzled and unsure.

“Um... here, take a fresh plate.”

I pull another empty plate. Perhaps starting fresh would be easier than continuing from where I started?

“...”

She silently stares at the blank plate without twitching a muscle. Here we go again, another freeze...

I’m impressed that they are planning to release this model to a client. If I were an ignorant customer, I’d freak out if she were to freeze like that out of the blue.

“...!”

She suddenly snaps out of the freeze and stretches her small hand toward the pile of bricks. After scanning the pile with her blue eyes, she grabs a red brick and puts it on her new plate.

“Good.”

I smile and pat her on the head. She makes an embarrassed happy smile in response, which she naturally tries to hide.

She continues to actively grab bricks and place them next to each other.

“H-how is it?”

She asks while her small frame fidgets nervously.

“It’s, um...”

She pretty much recreated the first floor of the exact same building which we just made together. She even matched the colors of the bricks to my random picks.

“Very good. Great, even.”

It’s saddening that she couldn't create something original, but perhaps I was expecting too much from her. For a robot, to quickly grasp how to creatively build lego constructs is far stretched. Heck, even Amy could hardly handle lego as a kid.

... this might be a good time to give up.

“It’s not very interesting, is it? I’ll just wrap it up...”

I smile wryly and begin sweeping the lego bricks into the plastic bag with my hand.

“Eh...? We won’t play anymore?”

My hand freezes.

Lily looks at me with a concerned and sad face.

“Do you want to continue? It seems hard for you...”

“But papa seems to like it... I-I mean, this game is a breeze! I can handle it no problem, hmph!”

Her eyes emit strong conviction and determination. Despite hardly understanding the game, despite how hard it is for her - she is willing to continue.

“I... ah...”

I’m at loss for words.

When I tried to teach Amy and she couldn’t get the hang of it, she’d cause tantrums and toss Lego bricks into my eyes.

Compared to her, Lily is an angel. She would go that far to make me happy. She’d play Lego just because I like it, even if she doesn’t understand how it works.

She...

She really is...

“Papa, what’s wrong?”

“Ah... I’m...”

My eyes are getting oddly teary, I can only imagine what sort of expression I’m wearing.

She is... Lily is...

Really... my daughter.

“P-papa?”

I embrace her tightly and stroke her hair.

I hate kids.

My little sister was a demon as a kid. I don’t want to ever have kids.

But Lily... is one daughter I want to keep forever.

“Okay, let’s play.”

I let her go and smile.

“W-well, if you insist that much... hmph.”

She makes a weak tsuntsun retort, which only makes her cuter.

“Let’s do it like this.”

I point at the simple Lego construct which we made together just minutes ago.

“Try building the same thing on your own territory.”

“Hmph, easily!”

She crosses her arms and strikes a high and mighty expression.

Even though I really want her to make something original, it’s best if I take this one step at a time. She is willing to go through this for my sake, so I should at least make the ride smoother for her.

She carefully grabs a brick and places it on her new plate. Then, she looks at me with a cheeky smirk.

“You see? No problem!”

I smile and pat her on the head.

Whether she succeeds or fails, it won’t change the fact that I’ll love this adorable little daughter.

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Announcement: I'll have to temporarily lower my release speed due to a busy period (university exams). I believe it wouldn't be worse than a chapter per two days.