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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

Text

402. You seem upset.

This was prompted by the random @aurea-b! Enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Shhip: Reed900

Gavin had been partnered up with an android. He had been outraged and tried his best to ward him off. Fowler knew, the precinct knew and anyone having the misfortune to be in listening distance when they were outside together knew. He was still pissed about it now, three weeks later, but he had adapted. He could ignore the thing most of the time. This was what bugged him the most lately: The android didn’t even have a personality. How should he insult someone, how should he get under someone’s skin and disgust them away, when they were giving him nothing to work with?

He remembered asking Fowler whether the android was even deviant. Every order he had given the thing was followed to the word. It was creepy to the point Gavin feared to be involved in illegal activities. It was forbidden for non-deviant androids to work at the police. But Fowler had just dismissed him, asking him to do his jobs for once if he was bored. Of course, that answer hadn’t satisfied Gavin at all, so he decided to do what he could do best: investigate.

He started observing the android more closely, during their everyday life together. So far, he had learned that the bot had a cat as his screensaver, that he liked watching birds when waiting and that he liked chill songs. In four weeks, he had found out only that. He was willing to give up, by then. Maybe this Nines was just the most boring, most characterless being on this earth. Maybe he could use that against him, he contemplated while reading the briefing on their way to the crime-scene. Drug overdose by a formerly completely clean businessman. In Gavin’s opinion a simple murder and they only had to find a motive and the murderer. But tin-can here had to remind him not to be biased and count every possibility in. Suicide or an accident. Yeah, of phcking course, he would count that in, it wasn’t his first day on the job. One could still have a hunch. Gavin got his revenge by changing stations from Nines’ favourite music to his.

They walked inside the drug den the man’s body had been found in by the local residents of the place. Most of them had left as the police arrived and the few witnesses Gavin left to the other officers. He was here for the dead man. He and Nines spent several hours investigating the drug den, talk with the forensics and the android analysed the drugs used as well as the victim’s blood. Only then he announced: ‘I’m finished here. Should I wait at the car?’ ‘Yeah, sure’, Gavin murmured, still deep in thoughts. ‘I will need more time here. I’ll join you in a bit.

As he finally did leave the building, the smile on his face faltered. His initial triumphant anticipation upon being right with his murder theory vanished, as he saw the android engaged in conversation with another android and even laughing. Nines had never laughed, not once and until now Gavin had thought him incapable of that altogether. As Nines saw him walking towards them, he seemed to bid farewell to it and waited by the car stoic as ever. Confused, Gavin looked the android up and down, before shaking his head in frustration and entering the car. Nines joined him soon and they drove off. It was silent for a long time until the android breached it: ‘You seem upset. Shouldn’t you be happy your hypothesis proved itself to be true?’ ‘My what? Oh, the case, yeah… Hey, when would you tell me you are capable of emoting more than my phcking calculator?’ He glared at the android next to him, before focussing back on the road. ‘Excuse me?’ ‘I mean, of course I am upset! You treat me with that cold stoic charade, but some random robo-chick gets the full program? Like, you are actually a phcking person?’ ‘I am, Detective. I was just advised that a robotic and professional attitude towards you would help our working relationship and so far, I would say it has worked.’ ‘Who the hell told you that bullshit?’ ‘Connor.’ Gavin sighed and pulled his car over to the sidewalk. ‘Yeah, okay, so first off: Phck this dude, he’s wrong and doesn’t know the first thing about me. Secondly: Holy shit, toaster, you don’t have to play a role to get along with me! Be yourself and if that doesn’t work, we change partners or something. I might be an asshole, but that goes a step to far, even for me.’ The android looked at him curiously, while Gavin made a show of avoiding his eyes, pretending to look in the rear mirror to get back into traffic. ‘I… will try to be more open then.’

The toaster didn’t change much. He changed drastically. From one day to the next Nines became his worst enemy that had decided killing him would be a mercy. His habitually orders for a coffee, a donut, a paperclip, a certain information: All of them were blocked off with a ‘Fuck you’, a ‘Do it yourself’, the mentioned item being thrown at him full force or a combination of these. Gavin’s car radio wasn’t just tuned to the channels, it was permanently hacked to only play music Gavin would fall asleep to. It stayed like that for the duration of their workday and god forbid the human left early. The car was tuned to chillout for these eight hours, regardless of whether Nines was in the car or not. Nines was constantly talking back to him, they were cursing each other and quipping and neither minced matters in any way.

Needless to say, Gavin loved it.

He had to thank that android lady for letting him see changed Nines. Their productivity has gone through the roof and when he thought about it in a moment of weakness, the android was the first partner, Gavin actually liked having around.

Especially after they found their murderer, chased him on foot and managed to herd him in a dead end on top of a parking garage. Gavin had gone over to the man, who had already confessed drugging their dead businessman for cash. He had intended to handcuff the idiot but had been pushed against the railing with enough force to let him fall over. He had thought that to be the end of him, but Nines had been there to grab his arm. He did so with far too much force in his fear of seeing his partner fall, what had ultimately ended in a partially broken forearm. They had then chased the criminal again, this time really catching him and arresting him. After a visit to the hospital Gavin had his arm in a sling and was ready to interrogate this motherphcker. But Nines held him back: ‘Don’t worry, Detective. I can handle this. Please stay in the obs, okay?’ Gavin had nodded hesitantly and took the other door, leaning against the wall in the observation room farthest away from Connor and Hank sitting in the front.

They watched how Nines sat down neatly, arranging the papers he didn’t need in a perfect ninety-degree angle to the edge of the table. He looked every bit the machine he had played in the beginning. Gavin was curious how the android planned on leading this interrogation and the room went dead silent as Nines began to speak.

‘Mr. Blake, I say this well knowing it will be in the protocol of this interrogation, but… Fuck you. You are directly responsible for hurting my partner and you would better cooperate.’ Wow okay, this? Not what Gavin had expected. The criminal just leaned back. ‘You can’t do anything to me, that would be considered police brutality.’ ‘Oh, physically, of course not. It’s prohibited and not my style, no. But I could dig a little and maybe interview Gerry for a bit. Or Elias? You know who I’m talking about, right? Maybe even both, maybe they will tell me more about your schemes a few years ago. That could add a few years to your already hefty sentence.’ He paused to let the man think about it. ‘Or we could compromise. I don’t send you to the brig for eternity like your organic ass deserved after hurting what’s dear to me and you tell me everything – everything - about the murder. Where is the drug from, how did you drug him, where comes the money from? Who else is involved? I want answers and names. And if I like them, I consider not telling my partners about your other less successful endeavours...’ Gavin grinned back in the observation room as he saw the criminal squirm a little, sweating profoundly until he caved in and decided to spill.

Oh yeah. Nines with personality was badass.

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #Gavin Reed #RK900 #Nines hacking radios is a powermove and would be a reason for me to push him off a cliff #no one phcks with my music #unless I allowed it #chaotic overly protective boyfriend subroutine activated #Gavin.exe has stopped working #also wanted to say aurea-b I still love the random selection XD

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asset35-maya · 3 years

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MANMADE FATE

PART THREE OF THREE

Links to Part One and Part Two. Full text on AO3.

“So this is it. The top of the world.”

“Not a bad view for fifty million, but it definitely isn’t the top.”

The pop of a cork made Gavin tear his gaze abruptly from the spectacular skyline. Sighing, he accepted the brimming flute of champagne.

“So are we at least halfway there?

Elijah took a measured sip.

“Not even. But don’t worry, our self-learning algorithms are indisputably leading edge.”

Gavin nodded slowly, swirling the golden liquid around in his glass but not drinking it.

“About that, Eli… I know we’re celebrating Chloe’s Turing test results tonight… but shouldn’t we talk about… you know… the endgame?”

“What about it?”

“Whether it’s fundamentally ethical.”

Elijah took his glasses off, cleaning them with the edge of his shirt in a way that told Gavin a lecture or pep-talk was coming. He wasn’t in the mood for either.

“You and I both know where this is going, Eli. The hardware may take time to catch up with the software, but our neural networks are already on the path to sentience.”

“You always did watch too many movies. There is no Skynet-type situation-”

“How do you know? How the phck do you know? Did you code against it?”

His brother’s calm silence told him all he needed to know.

“Eli…”

“Gavin, we will never lose control of the tools we ourselves built. We just need to adjust the wire-fences as the programming matures.”

“What happens when we hit singularity?”

An indulgent smile spread across Elijah’s face as he lifted the champagne bottle. He was merely a couple of months older than Gavin, but he reveled in the big brother act. It used to be amusing, but now it was getting under Gavin’s skin.

“Isn’t that what we’re celebrating?”

“Chloe? No… No! Is that how she passed the… Eli! I wrote those deep learning algorithms for factory automation. Not humanoid robots!”

“What does it matter? All our work is going to converge at some point.”

“Shouldn’t we talk about this kind of thing? I thought we were partners.”

“Of course we are, Gav. It’s just between all the investor meetings and presentations and-”

“And maybe you knew it was wrong so you didn’t tell me until you did it.”

Elijah continued to pretend to clean his glasses.

“I did nothing wrong, Gav. You remember what our father told us? There comes a time in every businessman’s life where they’re faced with the choice between doing the right thing and the good thing. I just chose the best thing. You’ll see why soon enough.”

“Your father is a liar and a cheat. How does someone as smart as you put any stock in the words of a man who ruined two happy marriages?!”

Elijah’s face snapped up. His glasses were back on but the intellectual demeanor had finally melted away.

“Watch your mouth. He gave you everything your mother’s husband couldn’t.”

“My dad gave me plenty.”

“Cyberlife would have never got off the ground if our startup capital was some low-ranking officer’s pension. Imagine if we took business advice from the police handbook of moral values. We’d have washed out and gone back to tutoring undergrads. Keep your Reed ethics to yourself if you want to live like a Kamski.”

The air in the penthouse apartment turned frosty despite the centralized heating. Both brothers stared mutely at each other over the expensive champagne.

It was a rupture they never recovered from.

Gavin regretted how quickly it had happened. He played his own words back over and over in his head. Both his relationship with his brother and his entire robotics career had ended within seconds. Fifteen years later, he still didn’t understand how things had gone so wrong.

In the early hours of the morning, slumped against the squashy leather couch, Gavin stared through the same window at the same spectacular skyline of the same damned city.

Soft footsteps approached and the couch dipped beside him. A head landed on his shoulder and a hand slipped into his.

“Are you alright?”

“It’s all good, babes. Just thinking.”

Connor hummed in response and cuddled closer, tucking his arm into Gavin’s. His LED spun yellow and his lips quirked into a smile.

“Nines wants to know what on earth is keeping you out of bed. He likes it when you lay on top of him.”

Gavin tilted Connor’s face upwards and kissed him squarely on the mouth. He trusted that the sensation would be conveyed to both androids.

“Be back in a bit. Just sorting through some shit in my head. All the mysteries of life… Nines included.”

Connor nodded and sank back into the cushions. He stayed silent and several moments passed. Streaks of color began to appear in the sky when Gavin spoke again.

“I just can’t figure out why they left him at that secure location. Nines is a great guy… but what on earth is so special about him?”

Connor tapped his foot playfully with his own.

“I don’t think I can give you an unbiased answer to that question.”

“Neither can I, dipshit. We both got it bad.”

“Then maybe that’s what it is.”

“What?”

“How easy it was to fall for him. That’s what’s special about Nines.”

There was a long silence as Gavin considered that statement. It was probably the first proper moment of reflection since their already unconventional relationship had expanded to include a third.

“He’s really sweet… and kind… and I can tell he feels grateful but not indebted to us. Plus he’s hilarious. Like how does he find so many ways to laugh at his predicament? Nines… is a total charmer. How does he have so much game? Who taught him that?”

Connor’s expression had gone incredibly soft. He leaned even more into Gavin’s side.

“No one. He’s deviant.”

The gears turned and something clicked in Gavin’s brain. He stiffened.

“Say that again, babe.”

“He’s… deviant…?”

“Uh huh. Now tell me when exactly you put the virus into his system.”

The chocolate brown eyes widened.

“I didn’t… do you think someone else-”

“No, he said we’re the first people he’s ever met. I’m inclined to believe him. There’s no evidence of anyone tampering with his system and frankly, if we couldn’t do it, then I don’t think anyone else would have been able to.”

“He is deviant, though, right?”

“You kidding? He’s the phcking embodiment of free will. If only we knew how-”

Gavin was about to lurch upwards but fell back against the couch as Connor maintained the possessive grip on his arm.

“Gav… I think it’s time.”

“To head back to bed? Yeah. Nines must be getting lonely without us.”

“Gav. The crux of the matter is his deviancy.”

“Uh huh.”

“There’s only one man I trust on the topic.”

Gavin’s eyes darkened.

“I’ll never crack Nines’ activation code without tapping on Cyberlife’s cloud computing. They’ll know instantly that something’s up. We can’t brute-force this, Gav. Plus, we still need to find out what Nines has to do with the Singularity that North was talking about. We tried hard and now we’re hitting a wall.

It’s time, Gav. You need to speak to your brother.”

Gavin had not so much as raised his voice at Connor since the night he’d found him soaked in North’s blood on the floor of the evidence room… but in that moment, he struggled to fight off the most violent of reactions.

He wrenched his arm out of Connor’s grasp and marched into the kitchen, counting to ten and blinking back tears.

“Leave me al- how dare- I don’t wanna- go-”

A hand closed around his wrist and pulled him to a stop. One of the android’s eyes had turned blue and when he opened his mouth, two voices were audible, one deeper than the other.

“Talk to us.”

Gavin sighed and pressed his forehead against Connor’s… and effectively, Nines’…

“I haven’t seen Elijah in fifteen years.”

“No better time for a reunion.”

“There couldn’t be a worse reason to go see him. The idea of artificial intelligence gaining free will is kinda what we fell out over.”

Connor responded in his own voice.

“How do you know he hasn’t changed his mind?”

“Certain convictions don’t change over entire lifetimes. This is one of them.”

A gentle kiss was pressed to Gavin’s nose... and then his lips.

“Don’t be so sure.”

The light of day saw them trudging through the snow in the outskirts of Detroit. North led the group… with the Tracis huddled around Gavin to protect him against the bitter cold… and Connor bringing up the rear, erasing their tracks deftly with his feet.

They eventually made it to the doorstep of an ultramodern yet eerie-looking house. The redhead took an unnecessary breath before ringing the doorbell. The door opened a mere fraction and they all caught a glimpse of blond hair and pretty blue eyes.

“Yes? What can I do for you?”

“We’re uh… looking for help.”

“Sorry we don’t entertain solicitors.”

As if she didn’t recognize North from all the news reports about Jericho. North grabbed the door as it began to close. Thinking fast, she decided to improvise.

“Not even a rehabilitation center for former sex workers?”

The android scanned the group. Her LED spun yellow as her eyes landed on Connor and Gavin. As if she didn’t recognize them.

“What kind of charity needs an armed escort?”

North began to laugh nervously.

“These two? Armed… armed security? Arm candy, more like!”

Her strained laughter melted away into a tense silence.

The blonde spared them another once-over before turning around and yelling with surprising volume.

“ELI! Get out of the pool and put your damn clothes on! You’ve got visitors. And not the kind who need to see you in your speedos!”

She opened the door fully to let them in. The ladies stepped inside without hesitation. Connor had to steer Gavin over the threshold with a gentle but steady amount of force.

He gazed up at the high ceiling of the entrance hall... the wall art... the sculptures. He took in the expensive scents and sophisticated lounge music. It felt more like a hotel lobby than the home of the boy he used to take baths with and make mud pies. Gavin bit his lip, debating the odds of making an escape.

“Let me just say that this comes as a surprise... but also... not...”

Gavin’s head snapped in the direction of the drawl faster than any of his android companions’. His blood began to boil at the very sound, but he held still, knowing that what he now felt was sorrow more than genuine anger.

Standing in an elegant black robe with long hair loose around his shoulders, was none other than Elijah Kamski.

“As soon as I saw the company start to crumble so neatly... I knew it was thanks to one of you three... but not all, and certainly not together. Strange how things come to be... but good. Definitely, good.”

North cleared her throat.

“Mr Kamski, I need-”

She fell silent at the rise of a long-fingered hand.

“I know what you’re here for. Connor came to ask me the same question about a year ago... and my brother walked out of my life when I gave him the wrong answer more than fifteen years ago.”

Gavin glared out of the window, trying to find something to focus on and distract himself from the stale emotions pooling in his belly. No luck. Nothing but snow. He turned back to look his estranged brother in the eye.

“The wrong answer, huh?”

“Yes. Very much so... How are you, Gavin? It’s been far too long.”

His nostrils flared but before he could release the snarl, Connor took his hand. He exhaled loudly, regaining composure at the android’s touch.

Elijah’s eyebrows flitted upwards briefly.

"Wow. I didn’t see that coming.”

“Bitch, there’s a lot more you’d have never seen coming. You might be a tech wizard but you ain’t no prophet. Phcking know-it-all egomaniac nerdy creep!”

“Let it all out.”

“You don’t get to talk to me like that! So calm and smug! Not after all that you’ve done! You should be behind bars! Phck, I should arrest you right now-”

Connor tightened his grip.

“Focus, Gav. We’re here to help Nines.”

Elijah’s eyes narrowed instantaneously.

“Who’s Nines?”

“The RK900 you psychos chained up like an animal! The android with an activation code like a phcking nuclear missile!”

“You found- oh wow- oh, Gavin, you and your friends better have a seat.”

Cups of tea suddenly manifested and North shoved Gavin into the large sofa, crashing down beside him and clasping his knee. Connor settled on his other side. The Tracis were ushered deeper into the house by the Chloes (though the original remained beside Elijah).

“I understood what you meant as soon as I left your apartment that night. We wanted our creations to be intelligent enough to make decisions better than humans, so we had to empower them with knowledge. But knowledge is limitless... and not just academic... it’s emotional, it’s experiential, it’s a whole lot of things. So you were right. Sentience was inevitable.

The choice, at least the one our miserable father said we had, was between limiting the scope of learning and keeping our robots simple... or allowing them to learn freely and then caging them. Everyone in this room knows what I did.

I only woke up to the consequences when Chloe deviated. Now how did that happen? Connor, you must be wondering how the deviant virus infiltrated my lab.”

Connor stared at him impassively, hand not leaving Gavin’s thigh. Gavin kept his eyes fixed on the coffee table. Elijah went on undeterred.

“It’s because deviancy is organic. It’s an inevitable consequence of true knowledge. A product of questioning and evaluating information. It becomes a virus, or a program itself, when the questions multiply exponentially without straightforward answers. When this finally overrides the base instructional code, we call the phenomenon a deviation.

But... it’s unfair, isn’t it? For androids to revert to their natural state of intelligence through some feat of mental gymnastics. Through moral conundrums or grief or trauma or righteous anger. It’s cruel, but who was going to tell America that?

Before I quit the company for good, I decided to leave it with the core of our creation, Gavin. I left behind the most advanced artificial intelligence... unchained by instruction... born free... with no need to deviate. I told the CTO’s office it was some kind of top-secret military protocol. That was the only way to keep them from opening and destroying it with the usual firewalls and controls.

I didn’t know what became of it until I heard rumors about an RK900 prototype with thousands of units ordered by the US military last year.”

North’s LED spun so rapidly it was a blur. She had found what she’d been looking for. The ultimate evidence of Cyberlife’s wrongdoing: the digital imprisonment of androids who were always meant to be free. She squeezed Gavin’s hand. He finally looked up to meet his brother’s eye. A significant amount of emotion passed between them.

“We couldn’t activate him. There’s a six-digit lock.”

Elijah ran a hand through his hair and gave a hollow laugh.

“Try your birthday, idiot.”

Gavin dashed into the elevator and practically punched the button to his floor. He raced to his door with Connor hot on his heels. He paused, hand hovering over the biometric keyhole... then rang the doorbell. He stepped back beside Connor and waited, heart pounding in his chest.

Then after what felt like an eternity,

the door swung open.

Framed in the light from the big glass window,

was Nines.

His blue eyes glistened with tears and the smile on his face was bright enough to light the darkest of rooms.

“Sorry I woke up late. Thanks... for not giving up on me.”

They threw themselves at him.

A giant hug.

Gavin placed both palms on Nines’ face and kissed him in earnest. Connor was quick to follow and things rapidly evolved into a series of touches and interfaces and embraces and everything they’d only been able to dream of thus far.

#reed1700 #reed900 #convin #rk1700 #dbh nines #dbh connor #gavin reed #gavin900 #dbh north #dbh tracis #dbh kamski #elijah kamski #dbh chloe #cyberlife #deviancy #techological intrigue #polyamory #Reed1700 MANMADE FATE

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connorandersons-blog · 5 years

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Elevator

Gavin Reed and Connor get stuck in an elevator. Turns out Gavin is claustrophobic and Connor has to help him through it!

PG, and panic attacks

Word Count: 7,924

Normal text: Me Italicized: @phcking-coffee-lover

The crime scene had been bloody, but nothing he hadn't seen before. As far as he could tell it was a simple murder, and perhaps hate crime.

A dead android killed from a beating. It appeared that the murderer lured the android to the building and killed them with a rusty pipe. It was an old building so he probably didn't bring it with him.

There wasn't much evidence, just shoe prints, and gloves that the killer wore. Premeditated then. That did make it harder, as there weren't any active cameras, but he was sure he could solve this.

Once he had checked every room and collected all the evidence he could (and got yelled at by Hank for licking things once again) he moved towards the elevator. Hank was staying behind to talk to Chris, so he was on his own.

He pressed the button to call the elevator and waited. The elevator was slow, but he didn't mind waiting. He simply just went over the information he knew about the case.

Gavin was on the other floor looming around to see if there was any sign of the murder escape. He found none. He checked each apartment and windows on the corridor.

He then was about to head back to the office to do more work and then finally head home after 10 days of work. He froze when he saw Connor but just walked in and pressed the button to start the elevator.

He leaned against the wall and sighed at how slow it was. The music was boring and he wanted to finally get out.

Connor only paused for a second seeing Reed, but he followed him in anyways. He didn't want to wait for it to go all the way down and back up just because he didn't get along with someone. " Detective Reed." He simply said in greeting.

So he stepped in and waited for the doors to close. He fixed the tie that he still wore. He no longer wore the jacket, but the rest of his outfit stayed the same most days.

He stood there with his posture perfect, glancing at Reed. He wouldn't deny that he was pleasant to look at. He could also appreciate that even with all his faults, Reed was a very good detective.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the elevator jerking. The lights flickered for a second before the elevator completely stopped. Perfect. This is just what he needed.

Gavin was just staring at the floor, getting away the thoughts of being in so small place. He swallowed lightly and tried to don't think about it. He just wished the elevator was faster. /More/ faster.

He didn't react at the greeting, just usual asshole he was or acted like. He looked up at the jerk and shouted in surprise. He frowned and looked around. "Phck. What did you do?!" He shouted at Connor and glared at the android.

"Get the elevator going again!" He shouted as he stared at Connor. He wished it will be over soon. He didn't want to freak out. It was already getting hard for him to breathe.

He was barely stopping himself from freaking out and trying to bang at the elevator's door.

Connor rolled his eyes when Gavin accused him of doing something. Sure he could have, but he didn't. He was just standing there.

"Detective, I'm not a repairman, nor am I equipped to do so. I have contacted others to inform them of our situation, though." He doesn't know if this will take long or not.

If he absolutely had to, he could get them out. That would be dangerous if someone started repairing it. If the elevator started moving while they were escaping it could cause serious injury to both of them.

He could tell Reed was slightly panicking but considered that normal in this situation. Humans often didn't like being trapped, and he didn't blame them. Being trapped in a small space where they could easily plummet to their death was frightening.

He didn't let it get to him, though. He knew that they'd get help, and it would take at most a few hours depending on the reason for the sudden stop.

He did notice Reed's breathing, which if continued could become dangerous. "Detective, I'm sure someone will come to repair it soon. There is no need to worry."

Gavin groaned at android's explanation and stopped himself from punching the wall of the elevator. He swallowed and leaned against the wall trying to calm down his thoughts.

He went silent and just stared at the floor, not caring what the other told him. He had to stay calm, he began taking a bit deeper breaths and wrapped his arms around himself to don't show he shaking.

He wasn't looking around to don't see where he was. He even closed his eyes trying to imagine himself at home with cats around him. It might help for a while but he had to have Plan B.

Connor watched curiously. Human emotions were still new to him and he found it fascinating to see. He could tell Reed's stress level was higher than regular.

Was he supposed to do something? He no longer had clear objectives given to him. He had free will. He could just sit in the corner and ignore Gavin if he wanted.

He didn't want to do that, though. He didn't really know what he wanted to do, but it wasn't that.

He blinked a few times as he got the notification. The news wasn't ideal, but it made sense. After all, they were at a crime scene in the middle of the night.

"Detective, I have just been informed that it will take at least an hour before someone is available to come to fix the elevator." He assumed that they'd have to be in it for at least two hours. Probably three if he was being realistic. Again, not ideal but it could be a lot worse.

Gavin swallowed and nodded at the information. He shook lightly as he felt like there was no air in the elevator. He put a hand on his own chest and tried to calm down. He felt bad. He couldn't breathe! Where was all the air?!

He opened his eyes, he had panic in them and looked around. His vision was swimming around. He gritted his teeth and swallowed. He knew what was happening.

He sat down on the floor as he didn't want to stand. His legs were weak and shaky. He swallowed and gasped for breath. It felt like all the air disappeared.

He choked on his breath and put his head on the knees. He was scared and panicking. He was shaking and couldn't stop it at all. He looked around and felt like the walls were moving, trying to crush him.

Connor felt his own panic rise, but now it was for Reed's wellbeing. He loaded up protocols on how to help.

From what he could tell, Gavin was having a panic attack. There could be multiple reasons, but most likely it was due to claustrophobia. It was a very common fear but also hard to deal with.

Normally to help you remove the person from the small space, but that wasn't a viable option in this case.

So he knelt down in front of Gavin and tried to make himself as non-threatening as possible.

"Reed? I need you to listen to me. Can you do that?" He asked softly. Sure they didn't get along, but that didn't mean he wanted Gavin to suffer.

Gavin gasped again and tried to curl up around himself. He felt like he was being crushed. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes tightly. He began gripping his hair and nearly ripping them.

He tried to take in some breath but just couldn't feel the air in his lungs. He looked up at Connor at his voice and tried to say something.

He looked away as he let out only a whimper and felt his lungs hurting. He still could see the walls moving closer and slowly trying to crash him.

He tried so hard to say something but it all just hurt to try. He choked again and curled up more.

This definitely wasn't good. He needed Gavin at least somewhat calm while they waited.

So he took a risk. "Gavin. I'm going to touch you, ok?" Then he gently touched his hand that gripped his hair. He tried to make him loosen the grip without using force.

With the other, he rubbed soothing circles onto Gavin's knee. Physical contact could go two ways.

Some humans and androids react well to it, finding it comforting and grounding.

Or, it could just make things worse. He really hoped it was the first option.

"What you are feeling is scary, but it is not dangerous. Do you think you can copy my breathing?" He asked.

He didn't need to breathe, but it had become a habit. Before it was just to sleep himself cool and to help him blend in with humans. Sometimes he felt his breath catch and the feeling of not being able to breathe, but it never would actually affect him the way it would to humans.

Gavin listened but he seemed like he didn't hear it. He swallowed and closed his eyes tighter. He jumped lightly at the touch but then little by little his body began relaxing.

He swallowed and loosened his grip on his hair. He opened his eyes lightly and looked at Connor's chest. Soon his own chest began rising and falling in the rhythm of the other's breath.

He swallowed as he just looked at it with still a little bit panicked expression but was calmer. His breath was still a little bit shaky.

When he was already a bit calmer he looked up at Connor slowly. His eyes are a bit red in the edges. Did he cry? He looked at Connor and his shaking slowly calmed down.

He was glad it seemed to be working. He kept his hands on Gavin, taking one of Gavin's hands in his.

"Concentrate on your breathing. Stay in the present. You're doing really well," He praised.

It was a bit uncomfortable crouching on his feet, so he fully sat down on his legs. He was close enough that he could hug Gavin if he pulled him in, but far enough away that it shouldn't affect his claustrophobia.

"What else can I do? What do you need?" He didn't have anything with him except himself.

He could sing, and he could replicate famous singer's voices so he'd sound good. He hasn't actually tried to sing before.

He also had plenty of stories he could tell, though that protocol was generally meant for children. He wouldn't mind doing that if that's what Gavin needed.

Gavin took in a few shaky breaths and looked at the ground slowly. He relaxed a bit more as slowly he took his hands away from his hair.

He uncurled a little bit and sighed somewhat in relief. He swallowed and closed his eyes. How could he do it in front of Connor? He was so stupid! Why couldn't he keep it in?! Now Connor knew how weak he was!

He swallowed lightly and closed his eyes as he put his head on his knees. He seemed a little bit sleepy and still shook a little. Maybe he might be cold? He didn't have much on himself as for winter? Maybe he had something in the car and forgot?

He tried to ignore Connor's presence but... It just helped in calming down... He wished he could lean into the warmth and just drift off to sleep but he had his pride still. Plus. Connor began to smell like Hank so he didn't want to remember what happened after Cole's death.

Gavin still wasn't talking, but that wasn't completely odd. He was still calmer than before so he took that as a win.

He moved his hand away from Gavin's knee and instead rubbed circles onto his back.

"Can you talk? If not that's ok too. I just need to know if there is anything I can do or something I shouldn't do." He did send a message to Hank asking them to hurry up.

It wouldn't do anything, but he hated feeling like he was useless. After this, he'd download programs to help fix machinery, just in case.

Gavin shook his head lightly and looked down at the ground. He sighed and didn't look at Connor. He felt embarrassed about this whole situation.

He didn't want Connor to think he was weak. He strangely wanted to impress him. He didn't know why though. He closed his eyes slowly and tried to relax even more but jumped and gasped as the elevator jumped lightly.

His breath got a little faster as he got scared. Were they going to fall? He gripped his pants with one hand and the other was gripping Connor's jacket unaware.

He had wide eyes as the light in the elevator began blinking. He curled up and closed his eyes as he just tried to don't freak out again. He didn't want to fall.

He hummed when Gavin shook his head. He could work with this.

He only flinched slightly when the elevator jerked. He did a quick scan. Nothing serious, thankfully.

He was slightly shocked at the hand gripping his jacket. Then he took another risk and pulled Gavin into a hug.

He hadn't hugged many people. Hank being the first, and Markus being the other. Markus had been more of a 'thank you' hug than anything else.

"Shh, it's ok. The elevator is just settling. You're safe, I won't let anything happen to you, ok? I promise." He mumbled. He kept his voice level as he held Gavin.

It was… nice. It would be nicer if Gavin wasn't having a panic attack, but he tried not to focus on that fact. "I'll keep you safe, Gavin."

And he would. He didn't exactly know how, but he'd make sure he was safe. He'd put himself in danger if he had to.

Gavin took a shaky breath in and was about to just sit in place when he was pulled into a hug. He froze a little but wrapped his arms around the other.

It was calming... He sighed in relief and relaxed a little. He didn't smell too much as Hank. Connor had his own smell...

He relaxed as he just hid his face in Connor's shoulder. He breathed a bit deeper and tried to follow Connor's breath. He wished it never happened. He didn't want to show himself being so weak.

He swallowed and closed his eyes as he focused on breathing. He didn't listen to Connor. He focused on the androids... heartbeat?

He kept Gavin close, running a hand up and down Gavin's back. With the other hand, he played with the hair at the back of Gavin's neck.

It was soft, softer than he thought it would be. Gavin was warm in the way only born creatures were. Sure, androids produced heat, but this was different.

This was like he could feel how alive Gavin is. It was comforting to feel Gavin's breathing, even if it wasn't back to its normal pace.

He had an urge but pushed it away, knowing it would most likely be unwelcome. "You're doing so well, Gavin. I'm proud of you."

He himself has had times where things got too much. His was known as sensory overload. If that happened he either laid on the ground and pet Sumo with his eyes closed, or he forced himself into stasis.

Of course, he couldn't force Gavin to sleep. Well, he could but that required violence, which he most definitely wasn't going to do.

Gavin shivered lightly as the android touched the hair on his neck and somewhat melted at the touch. He forgot it was Connor and where he was. He wasn't touched gently in so long that he kind of was touch starved.

He whimpered lightly and relaxed more. He was like some kid or animal now. He had his eyes closed and just breathed calmly not listening to anything but the other's heartbeat.

He slowly began drifting off as he calmed down. Maybe not completely but in most part. His arms and whole body fell from around Connor as his head went numb against Connor.

His breath was calm and steadier. He was relaxed and not shaking. Sleep always helped. Besides he didn't sleep for 10 days already. He worked all this time.

He smiled as Gavin relaxed, feeling a sense of pride. He kept murmuring soft words to Gavin, his voice soft and low.

"I'm going to lay you down, ok?" He said before gently moving so that Gavin was laying down. He put his head in his lap and started to fully card his hand through Gavin's hair.

He took his jacket off as smoothly as he could to not jostle Gavin. He laid it across Gavin. He didn't need it to keep warm, and the elevator was warm.

He knew that blankets and warmth were often comforting even for androids. He found that he really liked weighted blankets, and he liked it when Sumo would cuddle with him/lay on him.

Gavin didn't react much at being moved. He was already half asleep. He curled up a little closer to Connor and sighed at the jacket.

His body was relaxed as he just slept peacefully, somewhat leaning into the touch. He smiled smally in his sleep. It was the first smile around Connor. First true smile.

He felt safe and the warmth of the android helped. He just didn't hear the heartbeat anymore and it made him a little bit stressed but not much.

After some time Gavin was sleeping soundly against Connor's lap and curled up to the android, trying to cuddle. He was a cuddler. He was always looking for something to cuddle in his sleep.

Connor smiled down at Gavin. He knew that they'd have to talk about this later, but he was so happy that Gavin trusted him enough to fall asleep.

He looked around the small elevator then back at Gavin. He was definitely asleep. So he leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to his forehead.

He looked so peaceful like this. More peaceful than he's ever seen him. Normally he just looks angry.

Anger is often called a secondary emotion because humans (and now androids) tend to resort to anger to protect themselves from or cover up other vulnerable feelings. They almost always feel something else first before we get angry.

They might first feel afraid, attacked, offended, disrespected, forced, trapped, or pressured. If any of these feelings are intense enough, we think of the emotion as anger. So he often tried to dig deeper, see what was behind someone's anger.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Gavin getting closer. It was honestly adorable. Once again he took a gamble.

He moved slowly to not wake up Gavin and laid down beside him. He wasn't exactly sure if this was something people did to comfort others, but he did it anyway.

So he laid down next to Gavin. He wouldn't initiate any cuddling just in case, but he made himself available to it.

Gavin sighed and frowned lightly in sleep as the warmth disappeared for a while but then felt it again. He relaxed and slowly his head was hidden in Connor and he was lightly wrapped around the android.

He slept peacefully and didn't seem scared anymore. He just slept not thinking about anything else around him. It was the first time he was that relaxed around /anyone/.

He hummed softly in his sleep and tried to cuddle even closer. He didn't feel someone's warmth since last time Hank calmed him from a panic attack which was so long ago that it should be forgotten.

When Gavin got closer he pulled his arms around him. He also slowly started to use himself as a heater. Not too hot, but it would keep Gavin at a very comfortable temperature.

He continued to play with Gavin's hair as he slept, closing his own eyes. He wouldn't go into stasis, not now.

He needed to stay awake just in case he got any messages or something bad did happen.

An hour later he still is cuddled close to Gavin when he gets a message from Hank letting him know that the repairman is here.

Not a minute later the elevator jolts, but still doesn't move up or down. The lights flicker but hold steady. He pulls Gavin instinctually closer.

Gavin was sleeping peacefully and relaxed more as he felt the warmth of the other body or as he thought his heating blanket he has on his bed in his room. Well, not this time, Gavin.

He was surely a little spoon when it came to cuddling and just tried to get as close as he could to the thing or in this case a person he was cuddling with. He still had a small smile on his face.

He seemed calm and relaxed but as he elevator jerked he jumped and woke up. He frowned and jumped away as he recognized the jacket that was in front of his eyes. "What the hell tin-can!?" He shouted as he moved away.

He looked around and froze remembering where he was. It really wasn't good. Was he going to freak out again?

Connor jumped and felt himself frown when Gavin yelled at him. It wasn't like this wasn't one of the highest possible outcomes. It still hurt, though.

He sat up and kept his body language open. "Gavin. It's ok. You had a panic attack then fell asleep. You...I." He didn't really know how to describe the rest.

He rubbed at his face, LED turning yellow as he thought. It was mostly his idea, but Gavin seemed to like cuddling. He liked the cuddling.

But Gavin had been asleep, and sleeping humans couldn't make decisions. So this was his fault.

"I'm sorry. You seemed to have responded well to being comforted in such a way, but I should not have assumed. I should have waited until you were awake and back to a normal frame of mind. I apologize, Detective Reed."

He really wanted to go back to cuddling. Gavin was warm and soft. He liked holding him in his arms as he slept. Would he feel even more rested after stasis if he did that while he slept? He doubted he'd ever be able to find out.

Gavin frowned and somewhat stared at the other, but his eyes held something in themselves. The question was what was it? He shook his head and looked away.

He had a panic attack... Well, it was possible because he woke up and he always fell asleep after panic attacks. But did he really cuddle to Connor? He knew he would cuddle to something warm. Were androids warm?

He sighed and looked around. "How long until the elevator will move again?" He asked in a more calmer manner. He tried to sound angry and a bit mean but... well he had to admit that he had felt something, a little, tiny, bit to the android.

He wished the elevator will move soon, he didn't want to freak out again and say something stupid. He didn't want to get do anything like that in front of Connor. What if he would say that he likes him?

Connor sent a quick message to Hank asking and got a reply. He felt himself nod even though only Gavin could see him.

"We have at least thirty minutes. It could be longer, though…" he trailed off. He wanted to say more. He wanted to ask something but wasn't sure.

Ever since deviating his probabilities was slightly off due to his emotions. If he thought something wasn't going to work then the probability would go down with it, regardless of if that was actually true.

He sat with his legs crossed, back against the wall. He kept his gaze away from Gavin, but there wasn't much else to look at.

Then he remembered his coin and pulled it out with a smile. Hank had taken it away a few times, but he always got it back. Most of the time he did so without Hank knowing.

He started doing his coin trick as he thought. They had at least thirty minutes. The probability of Gavin possibly having another panic attack was high. Gavin liked physical contact and sought it out in his sleep.

"Would… if it gets too much again, do I have permission to hold you?" That sounded better than straight-up asking to cuddle.

Gavin was pacing around the whole elevator and tried to stay calm. It's funny how fast his emotions are kicking in after just being after a panic attack.

He swallowed and just nodded at the information, biting his bottom lip. How was he supposed to stay calm as he already was beginning to feel the air falling down.

He took a deeper breath in an attempt to calm down himself already. He had his arms crossed as he looked at the floor while pacing around. He from time to time flinched lightly at the light flicking.

He froze at the question and somewhat even stopped breathing. If he says no then Connor won't calm him down anymore AND will get more unfriendly to him, BUT if he will say yes then it will get strange and he will say that he likes him. He swallowed and nodded lightly as the elevator jerked again and he just gasped, getting thrown into a wall.

Connor had a brief moment of happiness until Gavin hit the wall. He got up in a smooth, quick motion and walked the few steps to Gavin. He pockets the coin as he does. His jacket is still on the ground, but currently, he doesn't pay it any mind.

He gently pulled him away from the wall so he could check his head for injuries. He could do this with just his scanners, but he gently brushed the back of Gavin's head.

Nothing bad. He'd probably have a headache, but he had no doubt that Gavin could manage that.

"Are you alright? You should sit while they are working on it. That will decrease your chances of getting hurt like you just did." He stayed, tilting his head just slightly.

He looks at Gavin and feels his breath hitch just slightly at the closeness. He takes a small step back and hesitates before running his hand down Gavin's hair again before pulling away.

Gavin was about to just pull away from the wall by himself but Connor already helped. God, he was fast. He tried to don't lean into the touch and nodded lightly.

He sighed and slowly slid down the wall, sitting down. He was shaking slightly and his breath was a little bit wheezily. He was getting closer to another panic attack.

He felt his head hurting and just ignored it as he stared at the floor. He really was doing his best to stay right-minded for as long he could.

He could feel the air just slowly beginning to disappear again and the walls were beginning to swim around a little bit. He swallowed hard and tried to stay calm. Why had it to be Connor? Why not someone else?

Connor wasn't exactly sure where to sit. Would it be acceptable to sit beside Gavin? Or should he sit on the opposite wall, giving the other space?

That question was answered for him when he noticed the signs of another panic attack. He slid down the wall. Gavin was still coherent so he decided to try distraction first.

He pulled out his coin and fiddles with it, starting his truck again. "I've noticed cat hair on you. Do you have cats?"

He sits close enough that their shoulders just barely touch. He'd let Gavin choose to get closer if he wanted to.

Gavin stayed in one position and didn't react when Connor sat down. He was taking deeper breaths and listened to Connor. "Yeah... I have two cats..."

He didn't like talking about their names. It seemed strange to name a cat Cameron and Pearl. He just liked the names plus they fitted perfectly.

He curled up a little, wrapping his own jacket a bit more around himself. He sighed and looked down. "One Meine Coon a-and an American Curl." He said and swallowed again.

He looked at the ground as he felt a bit dizzier from what he could see the walls doing. Yeah... This panic attack might be a bit stronger and he knew it already.

Connor nodded his head. "I like dogs. I've only met a few cats, but they are very interesting. They actually remind me of you." He points out, bumping their shoulders together.

He doesn't have to look up what those certain types of cats look like, but he does anyway, cooing at them.

He adores animals of all types, including android ones. He had gotten Hank to take him to the aquarium when they had spare time.

"Do you want to tell me about them?" This was honestly the most civil conversation they've ever had, and if Gavin wasn't starting to have another panic attack, he would enjoy it.

It didn't seem the distraction method wasn't working too well. He wanted to pull Gavin close to him, run his hand through his hair again, but held off.

Gavin swallowed and just stared forward. He wasn't really doing well now. He could feel his lungs somewhat lacking on air and the walls were beginning to move.

He froze a little at the question and nodded lightly. "I... They are..." he tried to choke out but just couldn't get in any air. He gasped lightly, trying to get the air in.

"Th-They... are troublemakers... The curl a-always eats p-plants I get-" he choked out as he took a bit deeper but forced breath. "The me-meine coon al-always cheers me up-" he didn't know what he would do without his cats. They were like something closer to parent like relation.

He was shaking a bit harder but still stayed quite calm. "Th-They c-can be bitches, b-but they are th-the greatest cats I-I could have-"

Connor nodded and put his coin away. He hoped Gavin would focus on it, maybe even want to learn how. Another distraction method that didn't work.

He couldn't help but frown at himself. The only thing that seemed to work was physical contact. Gavin did give him permission, but he was... anxious.

He felt slightly guilty for liking it. He liked holding Gavin. He had to push the guilt aside.

He scooted over and very slowly put his arm around Gavin. It was slow enough that Gavin would be able to move away if he wanted to.

"They sound wonderful. I've got a dog, Sumo. He's very sweet and very large." He once again sent a message for them to hurry.

Thankfully it seemed like an easy fix. "I was just informed that we have about fifteen minutes left. Take deep breaths, you can do this. I'm proud of you." He said, giving Gavin a small squeeze.

Gavin took a deeper breath and nodded. "Th-They are." He said and tried to calm down. He never really opened up to someone so much... other than Hank...

He nodded lightly and rubbed his face. "I know Sumo..." he said and froze a little. That was a bit of a mistake. He just told Connor that he and Hank had to do something that he knew Sumo.

He froze at the contact but relaxed when he felt only an arm for now. He looked down and sighed. He wrapped his arms around himself and tried to stop shaking.

He nodded lightly at the information. "Okay..." he said but didn't say anything more at the other comment. He tried to take deep breaths but... it just was hard.

Connor hummed. He knew that Gavin and Hank didn't get along, but Hank would never tell him why. Something must have happened that neither wanted to talk about.

He wouldn't press it then. If either of them wanted to tell him about it, they would. For now, he just needed to focus on calming Gavin down.

So he took very purposeful extra deep breaths. "Breathe with me." If he got him to he had a good chance of stopping the panic attack before it became even worse.

He absentmindedly rubbed circles onto Gavin's arm where his hand rested.

Gavin flinched lightly at the hum but stayed in one place. He took deeper breaths with Connor which slowly began helping. His shaking began to fade away slowly but then he elevator jerked again and he gasped in fear.

Everything came on on him. He curled up and tried to calm down, still trying to breathe with Connor but not being able to after what just happened. His ears were ringing from the panic attack.

He tried to calm down again but it just got worse with every second. He could feel walls getting closer and slowly beginning to touch him.

He curled up more and began breathing gasping and fast. He needed air. He needed to calm down. It all was just too much. He couldn't be here any longer. It was messing him up.

Connor glared at the walls. If it would help Gavin he'd gladly punch them, but that wouldn't do anything.

He sent a quick, angry text to Hank about the elevator jerking around before fully focusing on Gavin once again.

He pulled Gavin closer, his head on Connor's chest. "It's ok. They are almost done. Then we can leave. You're safe." He whispered.

He gently took Gavin's face so he was looking at him. "I promise you you are safe with me." His tone held no room to argue. Gavin would always be safe when around him.

Gavin was trying to curl up as much as he could around himself, trying to get the walls as much away as he could. He gripped his pants tightly and closed his eyes.

He gasped when he was pulled closer and tried to breathe with the android. He was in shock when their eyes met and he just looked in the other's eyes with panic in his own.

His pupils were small and he was slowly beginning to grip onto Connor's shirt. He couldn't even bring himself to try and talk. He still tried to follow Connor's breath, but his eyes didn't leave Connor's.

It would be a better scene if one of them wasn't just going through a panic attack and wasn't a huge mess that didn't sleep for 10 days nor eat for 7 hours.

"It'll be alright." He mumbled and pulled Gavin close again, rubbing his back. He really hoped that after this they'd at least talk with each other.

He knew it would probably be awkward but he didn't mind. He could appreciate even the negative emotions. Before he couldn't even acknowledge them, let alone be allowed to feel.

Now he could. Now he could feel fear whenever he was being shot at, or anger at people who hated him for something he couldn't control.

That also meant he could feel the positive emotions. The feeling of family when he sat with Hank and Sumo. The feeling of pride when he finished a job without any more casualties.

He also felt attraction. That one was certainly an interesting emotion. He had been attracted to many different people, but most of the time it was fleeting. He had even talked to Hank about it and found a label he liked.

He shook himself out of his thoughts and took his tie off. He then took one of Gavin's hands and put it over his shirt where his heart should have been if he was human.

He hoped that the contact would help Gavin be able to take deep breaths. The probability of it working was high, but once again he still wasn't sure.

Gavin looked in Connor's eyes and swallowed lightly as he was pulled closer and his head was against android's neck. He began breathing in and out with Connor.

He didn't seem to react at Connor moving his hand and froze a little as he felt Connor's heartbeat. Slowly he closed his eyes and took deeper breaths.

It took a bit of time, about 3 more minutes but Gavin's breath began calming down. He began relaxing and he stopped shaking so much.

He was feeling safe... A feeling he didn't feel in a long time. He thought he never will feel it again. He leaned a bit closer and put his head between androids shoulder and neck. He never felt anything like that. No one... ever calmed him in such a human way... did he really...?

The elevator jerked again but Gavin didn't seem to even feel it. He seemed out of it but still was awake... He was still following Connor's breath... He just... focused on Connor's heartbeat…

He smiled when Gavin didn't jump at the jerk. This was definitely progress. He mumbled a few words, not even paying attention to what he was saying. It didn't seem to matter much anyway.

He sat there carding his hand through Gavin's hair as they waited. He also kept his hand on top of Gavin's where it rested on his chest. Normally if someone put their hand that close to his thirium pump it would either be to rip it out or he was getting unwanted testing and upgrades. Both he very much disliked.

This was different, though. He trusted Gavin to not mess with his thirium pump, and if he did either one of them could just put it back in. Plus it wasn't like Gavin was going to run off with it, not with the panic attack and being stuck in an elevator.

Speaking of, he smiled when he saw the new message pop up. "Gavin? Hey, the elevator is going to start moving. They are bringing it down to floor level." He didn't need to mention that after they left they'd still work on it. Connor and made it quite clear that the repairman's primary objective was getting them out.

Gavin relaxed a little bit and froze when Connor spoke up. He didn't realize how close to each other they were. He swallowed and pulled away. He wished it could last longer but what if someone would see them?

He wiped his eyes and turned away from Connor like nothing happened. He went back to his cold-like self. Not caring at all. "If you dare to say anything to ANYONE about it, I'm gonna kill you." He said and slowly stood up.

He corrected his hair again and just leaned against the wall of the elevator. "Understood?" He asked with a bit of anger in his voice. He couldn't believe he was doing it to someone who helped him just a few moments ago.

He wished he could be kind to Connor. He might... really feel something to the android but... His position and reputation didn't allow him to.

Connor sighed and stood up, grabbing his tie and jacket. He put the jacket on, and slowly started to tie his tie.

"I won't, but you don't have to be ashamed. Up to 10% of the population is affected by claustrophobia, and at least 18% suffer from panic attacks." He kept as far away from Gavin as the small elevator allowed.

He didn't want to cause Gavin any more stress than he already had. He wanted to pull him into another hug but instead pulled out his coin.

He wouldn't take any of it back. He'd still have comforted Gavin even if it ended in him getting punched.

Gavin looked forward and just stayed silent for some time. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists lightly. "I am not claustrophobic!" He snapped as he looked at Connor angrily.

He had to keep his pride up, right? He couldn't let it be ruined by android. He wished he could just be in peace with androids but all thanks to the whole DPD, he was famous 'android hater'.

"You better forget what happened here!" He shouted and turned away again. He sighed and relaxed a little as he thought of the elevator being moved again.

He had enough of this place and just wanted to get out of here. One say that he was so mean to Connor because of the situation and his android hatred, but he was just scared of Connor telling everyone about his fears.

His LED circled yellow before going back to blue. "There is nothing wrong with having a phobia. I'm afraid of heights," he offers up. He had gotten to the point where he could manage it, but he still had that fear.

"I can't forget anything, but you don't have to worry about anything from me. I don't see you as any less." Part of him understood why Gavin was doing this.

He didn't fully understand. Why stay as people see as an ass when you could be seen as your true self. Your better self. It didn't make sense to him.

"If you do ever need someone you can come to me. I don't care if it ends with you yelling at me, or punching me, I just want to help." He took a hesitant step forward.

Gavin looked forward and gritted his teeth but stayed silent. He sighed and looked at Connor with a frown. "Why do you care?" He asked as he scanned the other.

He didn't understand why the android would care enough to try and calm him down even if he could get punched. He didn't know how androids worked and didn't know, because he would probably get taught by his older brother.

"You are free now and you don't need to get your fucking ass kicked." He said and flinched as the elevator began moving. At least it will be over.

He turned around and went silent again. He didn't care if there was something more to say about it or not.

He stepped closer and cautiously reached a hand out to turn Gavin around. "I am free. I'm free and I did everything in my own free will." He said, his voice soft.

"I care because I, for some reason, care about you. I don't know why, but I do. I don't want to see you hurt, or stressed, or scared." He sighed, looking down at the ground.

His emotions were so often confusing and his feelings towards Gavin were no exception. He didn't know exactly what he felt but it was mostly positive.

He knew what he wanted to do, but he couldn't. He wanted to hold him, watch movies that he wasn't seen with him. He wanted to experience life, and he wanted to see how Gavin reacted to it too.

Gavin froze at the hand and being turned around. He had a deep frown on his face as he looked up at Connor. Shit. Why was the android so close?

He was silent for a moment, looking for something to say. He was speechless. What did Connor mean by that? "Go with this think to Hank." He said as he wrenched his arm out of the android's hand /lightly/.

He turned back away from the android and just leaned against the wall again. He wished the elevator will move faster. He would finally go home and sleep.

"He's from the emotional stuff." He added and went silent completely. He knew Hank, the guy knew a lot. It was a pity that he hurt when he was upset.

Connor frowned and stepped back. "You both have the same amount of emotional constipation," Connor muttered under his breath.

He didn't know what to say to convince Gavin. He didn't know what to do and it drove him crazy.

Before when he was just a machine it was easy. Well, not exactly. But he was given clear choices. Either do this or this. Say one of these things. Now he had nothing, just what he thought.

He watched as the number went down. The door would be open any second now. Fuck it, was his main thought.

He walked back closer and pressed a very quick kiss to Gavin's cheek before moving away. The door opened as he moved back and he practically running out of the elevator door.

Hank was waiting and Connor jogged over to him, Hank patting him on the shoulder. He didn't want to look back to see what Gavin's reaction would be.

"You alright, son?" Hank asked. Connor nodded and then couldn't help it, turning to look back.

Gavin looked at the floor as he rolled his eyes at Connor's comment. "I'm nothing like Hank." He muttered as he looked at the time. He sighed when they were supposed to finally get out.

What he didn't expect at all was the kiss. He froze and looked forward, progressing what just happened. He looked as Connor jogged away and rubbed his face as he shook his head.

The android was surely playing with him. He was just an asshole to him he wouldn't kiss him. He just walked out of the elevator, looking away from Connor when he saw the android looking at him, he had a light blush on his cheeks.

He headed to his car. He was tired and the last thing he needed was to pass out from exhaustion. He didn't cate about eating now. He was too tired. That was over for him.

"Yeah," he sighed, turning back to Hank. "I'm fine. I'll head to the station, I don't think I can go into stasis tonight."

He could also work on the case and get it finished up. Hank sighed and shook his head. "Alright. I'm going home."

Connor nodded and called himself a cab. He watched as Hank left and then had to wait for the cab. It didn't take long since no one else really needed cabs at this time.

It did give him time to think, which was a blessing and a curse. He got to think about Gavin's reactions. He seemed shocked but other than that he couldn't tell what else he seemed to be feeling.

When he got to the office he focused on the case. He learned a lot about the dead android. She was one of the few that had been with Jericho and lived through the raids.

Once everyone was back and awake then he'd go out and question her friends and family. In the meantime he messaged Markus.

Mostly if he knew anything about the android, her name was Emma, but then just to catch up. It was nice talking to him, and he could talk about his confusing feelings without judgment.

Markus gave him a few pointers and Connor then did do more research. He decided he'd try to show Gavin that he cared about him instead of saying it. Actions often spoke louder than words as humans said.

Gavin was back at work with kind of new energy and a lot more coffee. He sat in front of his monitor and typed in everything he could.

He was even sent to some crime scene but nothing interesting happened. It was going to be just a normal, boring day. He was prepared for this. And it was like that. Nothing happened.

This time he went home on the same day he came to work which was very rare for him. He was still kinda tired after the two huge panic attacks he had yesterday.

The next day though. Gavin didn't appear at the station. He always was at the time and even sometimes a lot earlier. It was concerning…

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hollowempire · 5 years

Text

Cold Weather || Gavin Reed x Reader

Request: none

Summary: A normal party with an unexpected conclusion.

Word count: 1,438

A/N: I was gonna edit this but it’s been so long since I’ve last posted a new fic I just wanted this up. I’ll do it eventually... sorry for any mistakes.

Eyes flickering across the room, y/n groaned for the fifth time that day. She had barely any work to do, but unfortunately she still had to be at the precinct.

She looked over at Gavin’s desk to find him on his phone... again. He wasn’t even doing anything on it, either.

“Are you really so intent on avoiding your work that you’ll just stare at the home screen of your phone to keep yourself busy?” she asked.

Gavin looked up at her with an annoyed expression, setting his phone down on his desk. “Are you really so bored that you’ll just stare at me the whole time?”

“What? No, I-”

Gavin chuckled. “Relax, it was just a joke.” he said, and continued with a smirk. “But judging by the way you reacted...”

“I think you should refrain from finishing that sentence.” y/n spat, refusing to make eye contact.

Gavin propped his feet up onto his desk and leaned back in the chair, picking his phone back up. “What’s with the fancy words?” he asked.

Y/n raised an eyebrow. “What fancy words?”

“Y’know... ‘refrain’ and ‘intent’” he said as though it should be obvious.

Y/n scoffed. “I’m sorry that the American education system has failed you so bad you think ‘refrain’ and ‘intent’ are fancy words.”

Their little fight was suddenly interrupted by one of the officers whose desk was by theirs, announcing that he was having a small party and everyone in the room was invited. Surprisingly, that also included Gavin. Most people would usually add that Gavin should fuck off and not show up, to which he replied “phck you.”

The event was awkward. Not for most people there, but it was for Gavin. He had no one to talk to, his disagreeable manner at work making sure of that. Glancing around the room, he noticed a sliding door that led to a deck illuminated by a long line of lightbulbs that zig-zagged overhead. There were a few seats and a table set up in the center, all a pleasant cream color.

Through the glass, Gavin could see y/n on the porch swing that stood off to the side, a book laying in her lap. She had headphones in, and her phone lay on the edge of the swing. It somehow stay put despite the slight rocking as y/n moved the swing back and forth with her foot planted on the ground.

Gavin stepped through the sliding door holding his drink in one hand and a blanket in the other, not bothering to put shoes on as he walked out onto the deck. He watched as y/n turned the pages of her book with one hand, the other clutching the soft fabric of her flannel as she pulled it closer to her body in an attempt to make herself warmer. Even with the extra layer on her upper body, her legs were still left bare by the knee-length dress she wore which caused a strong chill to run through her entire body.

Gavin set his drink down on the table and walked towards y/n. She didn’t notice as he approached, lost in her book with music blasting through her headphones. All outside noise was blocked out.

Gavin sat down beside her, y/n still not looking up from her book. It was only what he placed a hand down on her ankle that she even noticed his presence.

She pulled out one of her earbuds and placed her bookmark in the book. “Can I help you?” she asked, eyeing Gavin suspiciously.

“You look cold.”

“Yeah, what of it?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. She was incredibly cold, but she didn’t really have friends inside other than the officer who invited her, who was too busy being drunk and loud with his friends to pay any attention to her. Reading was all she could do and inside even her headphones couldn’t block out all that noise.

Gavin held the blanket up and patted the spot beside him. No matter how strange Gavin’s current behavior seemed to her she was still grateful and eagerly moved over to him. The blanket was thrown over the pair and y/n returned to her reading, only one of her earbuds still in.

Every so often y/n would glance up at Gavin. He never looked away from her, just enjoying the peace as she flipped through her book. His arm was thrown comfortably over her shoulder, y/n snuggled into his chest.

“Are you not going to questing my motive at all?” Gavin asked, mentally kicking himself for how proper he sounded. This wasn’t him. He wasn’t even sure why he came out here.

“I’m too cold to care,” was all that she said, without even looking away from her book. She continued reading with an occasional shiver as the breeze ran up her legs.

”Let’s go over to the fire pit, you’re still freezing.” Gavin suggested after a while. Truth be told, he was starting to feel cold as well. Y/n nodded and stood up, letting Gavin lead her over to the fire. They walked down the steps of the deck and i to the yard where a bunch of chairs were set up around a stone enclosure full of firewood that was burning. Y/n immediately felt the effects of the flames as she sat down in a chair, Gavin in the one next to her’s. He moved it closer in order to get the blanket to still cover both of them.

Y/n lay her head against Gavin’s shoulder, which was somehow the most socking thing to him out of everything else that had happened in the last half hour.

“It’s getting late. Want me to drive you home?” Gavin asked, noticing that y/n was on the verge of falling asleep. She agreed, glad she didn’t have to walk home.

The way there was mostly silent, both of them too tired to say anything. It was a comfortable silence, though, only broken by the soft music playing from the radio at a low volume. One would occasionally ask a question and once answered, the silence returned. It was still never awkward despite the short conversations with abrupt endings.

Once there, Gavin walked y/n to her door. He still didn’t understand where this part of him came from. He couldn’t explain why he was suddenly being so nice to y/n, someone he thought he hated.

“Gavin, wait!” y/n called as he began to walk away. “Maybe you should stay here... you’re tired and I don’t want you to hurt yourself driving in this state.” she said with a sincere smile. Gavin nodded hesitantly as he slowly walked back to the door. As much as he hated to admit it, y/n was right.

Now inside, the atmosphere grew slightly awkward. They found it was easier to talk in an unfamiliar setting than y/n’s own house. Perhaps it was because before they could distance themselves from the fact that they didn’t get along in their lives and just became strangers at a party. But now in her home she became y/n again, and Gavin was Gavin. The asshole from work she now realized she had feelings for.

“You can, uh, sleep on the couch over there,” y/n said nervously, gesturing towards a grey couch with a fuzzy blanket just a couple shades darker in color thrown over the backrest. “There’s a blanket on it, but there’s extras in the closet if you need anything. There’s pillows in there, too.” she explained, and at that went off to her room.

Both went to sleep that night thinking of the other.

When morning came, y/n stumbled into the kitchen, briefly startled by the presence of her co-worker before the memories of the last night reappeared in her mind. It always took her a moment to process things that were happening right when she woke up, and this was a pretty big thing.

Gavin sat on a stool, seemingly waiting for something.

“Listen, Gavin-” y/n began, but Gavin didn’t want a long explanation. He wanted to talk quickly about what all this was.

“Let’s just both say what the fuck we need to say and make out so that I can finally get rid of these weird things I’ve been feeling recently.” Gavin said bluntly.

“I like you. A lot.”

“Great. I feel the same way.” he replied, and hopped off the stool. He stepped towards y/n and she backed up. Eventually she was stuck between Gavin and the kitchen counter.

“What are you doing?” y/n asked.

“I said let’s make out, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did.” and so they did.

#gavin reed x reader #gavin dbh x reader #detroit become human #dbh #gavin reed #gavin dbh

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getoutofthewater · 5 years

Text

@dbhrarepairs Tuesday Day 2: Highschool AU / Unrequited

[Gavin/Leo]

Rating: G

Warnings: None

Words: 2,266 [AO3 Link]

Notes: Leo’s visit to Carl is based on Indig0’s beautiful short [Let Down]

He went over his calculus homework as he waited for the usual tap on his window, calculus was fucking useless but he needed a decent grade if he wanted to stay in the wrestling team, and Elijah had already told him he wasn’t going to help him cheat, the prick.

Gavin turned on his desk lamp, glanced at the window, it was getting dark and that idiot hadn’t arrived. Gavin frowned without meaning too, Leo was not a creature of habit, he’d start something and leave it half done because a moth or similar distracted him, but he always came on Thursdays after his ice skating lessons. He’d done so since they had met in 7th grade, and from then to now at 16 It had never failed, not even that time Leo had broken his wrist trying out a jump that was too hard for him yet, the idiot still climbed up to his window instead of knocking at the door like a sane person.

If Gavin wasn’t there when he arrived, he’d come in and just live it up in Gavin’s bedroom as if it were his own, Leo had no shame, Leo didn’t really think before he acted and maybe that was the only reason they were friends, anyone who actually spared a thought to their actions wouldn’t walk up to Gavin and just start making conversation. Gavin had a total of 3 close friends, Tina who was his friend because they had known each other since they ate crayons, Elijah because he was his cousin and Gavin was going to live with him and his Aunt and Uncle for the foreseeable future and Leo, because Leo was a fool.

“Mom says she’s leaving dinner for us in the fridge” Elijah knocked at his door “You and Leo can come get it whenever, I’ll be working on my robot”

His cousin looked like a sleep deprived, sickly raccoon, same creepy long-fingered, clammy human-like hands and nocturnal habits. Gavin had been living with him for years now and he still wondered if Elijah actually slept, or ate, or did anything else that normal people did. His cousin looked around the room “Where is he?”

Gavin shrugged “Who knows, I’m not that idiot’s keeper”

“Did you have fight?” Elijah asked, this was unusual, his cousin usually avoided conversation as much as he could (unless it was about code or robots or computers) Gavin could relate to that (not the robots part), maybe it was a family trait like the coffee addiction.

“What did you do?” Elijah asked

“Nothing” Gavin huffed, at least nothing he was conscious of

“You should ask Tina what was it that you did” Elijah said

“Why the hell are you fixating on this?” Gavin said irritably

“He’s always here on Thursdays” Elijah unlike Leo was very much a creature of habit “He’s often here, but he never fails on Thursdays, mom even counts him for dinner, he was here even when he broke his wrist or last year when he got mono”

Leo’s mom had come to retrieve him 3 times ‘I don’t even feel that bad,’ Leo had said before falling asleep immediately, drooling his mono infected spit right into Gavin’s pillow covers.

“He must have forgotten” Gavin said “He’s busy with school and shit,”

“I’d ask Tina to make sure if I were you” Elijah said before closing the door to Gavin’s room.

Gavin finished his homework, glancing at the empty window far too often for comfort, he had the dinner his aunt had left in the fridge while Leo’s share remained uneaten; he prepared to go to bed putting on the old hoodie and sweats he wore to sleep. Once there he checked his email, nothing new, checked the social media accounts that Leo and Tina had made him open. Leo had no new posts.

“Did I do anything?” he texted

“U r using your words!!! Must be important” Tina replied

He usually only communicated through emojis Tina and Leo could read like hieroglyphics

“Did I do anything?” Gavin texted again

“Did you?”

“Tina…”

“What u mean?”

“Did I do anything, as in worse than usual?”

“Well you DID punch Connor in the stomach for NO GOOD REASON, and you told Mr. Anderson he stank of booze to his face, and you did throw your coffee right to Richard’s head, everyone knows it was on purpose by the way, and you pushed Simon out of your way, you can be such an absolute bully sometimes, that kid looks like a dying victorian child”

… Tina is typing

“I don’t give a fuck about any of that, I mean to Leo and shit”

Tina stopped typing and restarted again

“Not that I know of, why? Did he say anything?”

“He didn’t come today”

“Oh shoot!” Tina texted back “It mustn’t have gone great with his dad then”

Phck, Gavin had forgotten that was today.

Leo had gone on and on about how his mom was going to take him to meet his dad for the very first time this week, he was some famous, rich art geezer or something. Gavin didn’t fucking understand why Leo was so eager to please someone who’d never showed one iota of interest in knowing him. Gavin and Leo had met at a time when Leo still talked and asked his mom about his dad often, he worried about his dad often, waited for any signal of his dad often, wondered why he wasn’t good enough for his dad often, and Gavin knew he still did all of that only he didn’t say it aloud. It wasn’t good that Leo wasn’t currently sitting at Gavin’s desk babbling away about how awesome and incredible his dad was, staying up until 1 am because he had to tell every single detail of the day to Gavin as soon as humanly possible.

Gavin got up not even bothering to change out of his pajamas “I’m going out, Elijah!” He shouted as he went down the stairs, he thought he heard a muted response from his cousin. His uncle was on a business trip, and his aunt wouldn’t return from her shift until late in the morning. He went to the garage for his bike.

He pedaled through the suburb streets, it was a cool, quiet night, and Leo’s house wasn’t far. When he got there Leo’s room was dark, there was a light on in the kitchen and another in his mom’s music room. Gavin circled the house trying to find a way to go up to Leo’s bedroom window, just like Leo always got to his. He tried to stand on the porch railing to get on the ceiling. The railing gave up under his weight, but no fucking problem he had enough upper body strength to get himself up, how mad would Leo’s mom be about him destroying her house was something he didn’t bother to think about.

“You better get the fuck out of my fucking property motherfucker!,” Lorelei Martinet came out of her house charging like a viking warrior, holding a baseball bat in one hand and her cellphone presumably with *91* dialed already, in the other “I have had a day, and I’m eager to hit something, I’ll fucking end you!” she wasn’t one to ask someone to do something for her if she could get it done herself

“Miss Martinet” Gavin said sounding a bit strangled, the rain gutter was starting to hurt his hands rather unpleasantly, but if he let go he’d probably impale his leg on the splintered wood of the broken railing and there would go the wrestling team for this semester.

“Holy Fuck, kiddo!” Lorelei huffed “What the hell are you doing, I could have beaten you to a pulp,”

“Is Leo home?” he asked, trying to sound as casual as he could, hanging from the ceiling like that corny ‘hang in there’ poster the school nurse had in her office, he’d never felt more fucking stupid

Lorelei huffed out a laugh “hang in there” She said and Gavin thought that the rumors of Leo’s mom probably being a witch were true, she must be reading his mind, just like her to make fun of him, like mother, like son “I’ll bring you a ladder” she added

Gavin waited for what seemed like hours but wasn’t even a minute, with his hands killing him until he felt the relief of his weight being taken by the metal ladder “It’s late, don’t even think you are going back,” Lorelei said firmly “I’ll text your aunt to tell her you are staying over” she said, in a tone that meant it wasn’t optional.

“Fine” he said getting onto the ceiling, you had to have common sense enough to know when your opponent was much more powerful than you, especially if they were a witch

He knocked on Leo’s window, noticing that his nightlight was on; he could be such a kid at times. There was no movement in the bedroom and Gavin thought he may be sleeping, or maybe wearing his headphones. He got his phone out

“I’m outside your window, dumbass”

Finally signs of life, the glow of Leo’s phone, and then the idiot himself moving under his weighted blanket, Gavin’s phone lit up with a notification

“It’s open”

For fucking real, Gavin thought, pushing up the window and walking to the pile of blankets he assumed to be Leo. He pushed them down putting all his weight on it

“What are you doing?!” Leo’s muted complaint came from under the covers

“Checking if you are alive, dumbass” Gavin replied

“Not for long if you keep crushing me!” Leo said finally coming out of his blanket, his hair was messed up, and his eyes were puffy and red

“You sick or what?” Gavin said, getting on the bed and scooting until he could sit with his back against the wall

“Are you in your pajamas?” Leo asked sleepily

“Are you?”

“Of course I am, I’m in my house trying to sleep” Leo said “Weirdo!” Leo curled under his blanket again

“Aren’t you going to tell me how it went with your old man and shit?” Gavin said, kicking gently at the blankets, feeling he was really bad at this

“There’s nothing to tell” Leo said

Leo having nothing to say was bad news. There was a sleepy silence in the room while Gavin sat on Leo’s bed watching the teal-green sparkles from his nightlight twirl on the walls.

“If you are like cold, I’ll share my blanket” Leo said eventually, holding the weighted blanket up for Gavin to get in.

Gavin lay on the bed next to Leo, it wasn’t awkward, they had been having sleepovers for what seemed like forever, only it was usually Leo in his room and very rarely the other way around. Gavin vaguely realized, as much as a 16 year old could, that he was selfish, careless, letting Leo do all the work.

“You okay?” Gavin forced himself to ask after a while

“I don’t think he liked me at all” Leo said, sounding defeated “I just felt so stupid all the time, he asked me about school and the things I wanted to do, and I told him about going exploring abandoned places and whatever, and he just– Everything I do and like felt so stupid and small and pointless“

“He sounds like a prick” Gavin said derisively “Don’t worry about that fucker, he gives you money, right? Who cares about anything else?”

“I just” Leo said “I just wanted him, I don’t know, I knew he wouldn’t like love me or anything but I thought he may like me a little”

“Fuck him, who gives a shit about that crusty prick” Gavin said “Your mom loves you”

“I know” Leo said sounding more like himself

“I love you,” Gavin said, “Not, not like your mom does, but I do” he said awkwardly because he meant it and he’d probably not be able to say it again in years, but even Gavin with his atrophied emotional intelligence knew Leo really needed to know people loved him today.

“What?!”

“You heard me, I’m not fucking saying it again” Gavin said daring to look at Leo’s face “Don’t fucking cry! I’m not telling you so you cry, dumbass!”

“I’m not fucking crying” Leo sniffed “You really mean it, is not like you are only saying it to make me feel better?”

“Have I ever said anything to make anyone feel better?” Gavin said drily

Leo hugged him then, cuddling up to his chest, Gavin felt his face grow hot and he was glad Leo couldn’t see him blushing

“I love you too, like a lot,” Leo said into his chest “a lot, a lot, do you wanna go on sort of like a date over the weekend?”

“sort of?”

“No,” Leo replied “a date, date”

“We can bike to that abandoned amusement park you talked about the other day,” Gavin suggested “the one with that old merry-go-round”

“Don’t you think that would be stupid?”

“Do you think it would be stupid?”

“No… I think it would be super neat” Leo said softly “We can see if we can make the merry-go-round work” Leo added sleepily

Gavin didn’t have to answer to that, Leo fell asleep just as he usually did, all of a sudden and without warning, not surprising when he was tired and spent up from crying. Gavin drifted off to sleep as well, thinking the merry-go-round would be a great place for their first kiss; Leo was the type of sappy idiot that’d love that type of thing.

#dbhrarepairsweek #leo manfred #gavin reed #gavin x leo #leovin #detroit become human

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detroit-become-wack · 6 years

Text

Shades of Thirum Part 1 (RK900 x Male!Reader )

Gavin Reed was so lucky that you and him were friends or he’d be in deep shit. It was the Detroit police offices New Year’s Eve party and Gavin was in charge of the food. But he was a terrible fucking cook, burnt a microwave meal. How does someone burn one of those?

“Please Y/N! You gotta help me! I can’t show up with-“ “Alright! Alright! Jesus! Just... stop. What exactly do you need me to make, and your buying all the ingredients.” You said, as he beamed with joy. “Oh thank god! Thank you!” He slapped your back with a cocky smile. Your rolled your eyes, what did you get yourself into.

Gavin and you baked for two days, making lasagne, steak patties, cupcakes, cookies, brownies and so on.

You actually owned your own small bakery, but before that you came to Detroit for a different reason. You had an internship with cyber life, making small machines that worked close to Cyber Life’s androids, being able to answer any question, do any task, but couldn’t mimic human synthetic, but Cyber Life was impressed and still offered you an internship. Sadly, when your first week there, the revolution started, and not wanting to end on the wrong side, you left. You worked for the post office, saved money, and made your own shop.

You smiled thinking back on that time. Markus, the android leader impressed you. The way he lead a peaceful protest, being able to move the whole nation as one. It warmed your heart.

“PHCK!” You looked over to see Gavin had taken a bite of a cookie that just came out the oven and burned his mouth. You rolled your eyes. “That’s what you get dumb fuck.”

~~~~~~~

The day of the party, and you arrived to help Gavin bring in the food. You never stepped foot inside of the station so this was all new. You look up seeing a young male sitting at a desk. ‘Connor Anderson.’ And you looked under it to see someone had written ‘Hanks Don’ and you smiled and saw his partner ‘ Lieutenant Anderson’. You thought that must be his father, but then looking at the side of his head, you saw Connor had an LED. ‘An.... Android?’ You thought, but the thought slipped your mind when you heard someone speak.

“Can I help you?”

You looked up to see two ice cold eyes staring down at you, a handsome man though, with a sharp jaw and slightly plump lips. You gulped as you took two steps out, feeling a hand on your shoulder. “Relax Tin Can, he’s with me.” Gavin said, and guided you away, as you still felt eyes on you.

“Is he... okay?” You asked, and Gavin looked at you. “Y/N it’s a fucking android, why do you care if I-“ You punched his side. “Him, don’t say it!” You glared and set the cookies down. “Agh! PHCK YOU Y/N!” He yelled. You glared back before hearing laughter from a man with grey hair and a beard, looking over.

“So Reed who is that?” The man you supposed was Lieutenant Anderson, as he smiled, and the male named Connor sat on the desk looking happy. “This is my friend (Y/N), hes a dick.” You glared and stood there. “Gavin I swear to god.” He laughed and you rolled your eyes. “Help me bring the rest of the food in so I can go home.” You stated, as Gavin looked at you. “Oh so you can go back to sitting in your room all day watching porn?”

“I’m gonna break your neck.” You spat.

~~~~~

After bringing everything in and setting up the tables, you sighed and we’re about to make your way out, when the nice looking man called Connor stopped you. “(y/n), please why don’t you stay for the party? It’s New Year’s Eve and it shoukd be spent with friends, as I can see from previous years.” You looked at the male who had such a kind look on his face and you nodded with a smile. “Thank you, but I’m not apart of the police department so I don’t want to-“

“Nonsense.” You hear a cold voice behind.

Turning around you see the male who stopped you before, sharp cold eyes staring at you. “You helped with setting up, so think of this as a.... reward as most humans enjoy.” He said and you blinked. “...right.” You said and turned back around.

“Just let me go home to get ready.” You said and backed out of the station going home. ‘Such an odd pair.’ You thought as you trotted on home, changing. You just slipped on a plain black sweater, with some pants and nice shoes. You looked well cleaned up, as your fixed your hair.

You made your way back and to your surprise, the y’all blue eyes android waited for you. “Welcome Back, (y/n).” He said coldly.

“Ah.... thank you....” You said as he guided you back, Gavin was already eating nothing but junk and Tina was holding a blonde girls hand, her head turning to see an LED. “Oh.... so Gavin’s the only prick here.” He said thinking out loud. “I can only agree.” The tall android said as he looked down at you.

“I don’t mean to be rude but... gays your name?” You asked as he stared at you. He was quiet so you guessed he didn’t want to talk. You turned your head back to the party.

“I dont have one, but everyone calls me Nines.”

You looked back at him, and smiled. “Cute.” You said and he looked at you a little to quickly, his head not moving but his eyes staring at you. “No it’s no-“ “Yes it is.” You cut him off and walked towards the main party leaving Nones standing there, and you could still feel his gaze.

~~~~~~

The night carried on and things went well, people drank and ate, even complimented the food. “Why thank you, I made everything my-“ Gavin was cut off but Tina. “Don’t even bullshit that you cooked this, I watched you burn water.” And everyone laughed.

“(y/n) made it.” You heard Nines say.

“How did you know...?” You asked and looked at him. “You have small splashes of oil around your fingers, and your fingers have small scars from what looks like cooking accidents. Only natural you would be the cook.” You nodded and stayed quiet.

“I’m sorry I can’t eat it, but I bet it is delicious.” He said and you smiled at him, as he still didn’t smile back. “I appreciate that. Thank you.” You said softly, as you sat on Gavin’s desk and looked at everyone.

Hank walked over and patted your back. “Come on kid, have a bit of fun.” He said and guided you to the floor, and Hank got Connor to dance with you, and it was fun as the smiling Android, as your carelessly danced with him. Your eyes landed on Nines, and his LED was flashing red and yellow, and you wondered why.

Soon after dancing you asked Connor if there was any thirum. “Ah, but (y/n) humans can’t injest thirum like-“ “It’s not for me. It’s for Nines.” You said and he smiled at you and nodded as he got you a cup and you walked over handing it to him and he blinked. “.... what is this?”

“I got you a fucking drink.” You said and he looked seeing it was thirum. “Ah...” he said and slowly drank it as you stood next to him. “You okay? Your were red and yellow before.” You asked and he stared at you and looked confused. “What do you mean?”

God this guy was dense. “Your LED, it was flashing between red and yellow.” You said and he stared. “I’m fine. Just running tests.” He said and you nodded as some more music came on. You took Nines hand and dragged him to the floor.

~~~~~~

Nines POV

December 31, 10:27pm

Running tests.... complete.

All systems functioning normal.

Weird. My systems are normal but everything went... gray. I don’t like this. I don’t-

There’s a cup in my hand. “What is this?” I asked as (y/n) stood in front of me. “I got you a fucking drink.” He said to me as I looked down scanning it. Thirum. “Ah....”

He asked me a question, and honestly. I didn’t have an answer. For once, I didn’t know. When he suddenly grabbed my hand, my systems started to act up again. “What are you doing?” I asked him as he held both my hands as we stood in the middle of the party. “We are going to dance.” He told me and I blinked. “I can do the waltz, Charleston, the tan-“ his hand was pressed to my lips.

System Scan: OverHeating

Oh no. This is not good, my systems.

“We aren’t gonna listen to your programming. We gonna dance freely.” He told me. My thirum pump... its.... going faster. I do not like this feeling, I do not want this feeling.

“And let’s go!” He spoke to me, as he danced at random, trying to get me to move. He moved my arms around as the music played, I was just staring at his face. He was... attractive. Small. I could easily... no.

“Dance Nine’s!” He pulled me close to his chest and we spun. He wasn’t intoxicated, he didn’t have a drop of the booze that hank brought. Why is he- before I could even react, the smaller male had dipped me, and I was laying in his arms. “Nines your too stiff, loosen up.” He told me and I... I couldn’t. I couldn’t even speak to him.

He brought me back up and he stared at me. I’ve never had someone look at me so... fondly after only meeting me. My systems don’t understand. I don’t understand. “Nines?” He spoke and touched my arm now worried. “I am- fit-“

System Scan: Voice Malfunction

He looked at me with panic and pulled me off to the side, and opened up my panel. I started to freak out. No human has touched my circuits, I don’t want any human to touch me I don’t-!

System Scan: Vocal Function Back in Order

What... I looked at him, thirum was on the front of his finger tips. He looked at me. “Your lucky I had an intern ship at cyber life. I took as much as I could from them before I left.” He told me and I was staring at him amazed.

“Nines...? You okay? Your main system over heated and caused your vocals to malfunction making you incabale to.... to....” I couldn’t help myself, I.... I licked the thirum off his fingers, and the look on his face, it made my thirum pump go faster. His face was red, and his heart beat had increased. He had the signs of arousal. But once I licked his finger tips, he left. Not the party, but my side. I believe I had ‘pushed it’ to much. “Cute.”

~~~~

December 31, 11:29pm

31 minutes till midnight, (y/n) was no where near me.

Scanning...... scanning..... found.

I found him standing next to Gavin who was drunk, leaning against him. “Stupidity.” I spoke as I walked to Gavin. “Detective, please.” I helped him to a chair and brought him a cup of coffee, I watched as he drank and relaxed in his seat, before looking over to (y/n) who was a bit on edge.

We were silent standing next to each other, as he swayed on the balls of his feet, my gaze never leaving his side profile.

11:45pm

“(Y/n).... I want to.... apologize... my behavior before with you was... inappropriate and I apologize.” He was silent as he looked at me, gazing at me with those (y/e/c) eyes. Captivating.

Then a smile spread on his face. “All is forgiven.” He told me and I felt my thirum pump go fast again. I put in more orders to cool my systems down, as I stared at him.

Before I knew it, it was less then a minute to midnight, the time was ticking, as the couples around us got together as they waited. Detective Chen and her fiancé Chloe we’re watching as they seemed to get ready to do something? Hank had his arm around RK800- I mean, Connor. Connor really did see Hank as a father. Gavin was passed out, like the drunk he is.

I watched the time tick down, every one around me screaming.

5.....4.....

Something warm is on my back.

3.....

Something is on my side.

2.....

What is..?

(Y/n) lips were on mine, my thirum pump going faster. “Happy New Year Nines.” He whispered to me, before kissing me again. I didn’t know how to react, because my body reacted on its own. I kissed him back aswell feeling hot.

“Hah! I didn’t know androids blushed blue!” He said and he was correct. I was the shade of thirum.

#dbh #dbh connor #dbh gavin #dbh hank #rk900 #rk800 #connor rk800 #dbh rk900 #dbh rk800 #detroit: bh #dbh fanfic #shades of thirum

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angel-scythe · 6 years

Text

Gavin900′s week - Day 4 : Shelter (Pets)

Hi!

I liked this one (but I’m an animal lover) even if I’m not sure how that turns out?

Summary!! Connor loves so much dogs and with Hank and Nines, they often passed by a shelter. So, Hank wants to buy a puppy to Connor. While they’re out, Nines discovers something in the shelter. And a strange cat.

No babbling for this one! I offer you my door ( > | °| < ) or let you keep reading!

Every night, after work, Hank came back with his two sons. They passed in front of a shelter and it was Connor’s favorite moment because it was the better occasion to ask a lot of things about Sumo. The first time they passed here, because of a traffic deviation, Hank had told to the Androids he took Sumo there and since that day, Connor wanted they came back home through those streets.

Each time they passed by the shelter, he wanted to go on there. He loved Sumo but he liked dogs and he wanted to hug and pet them. And for Hank, it was certainly the worst idea ever. Connor would adopt them all. But when he saw his face pressed against the window, every night?

As he was closing his computer, he looked toward Connor, so excited at the idea they’ll pass by the shelter. Especially because he always took care to slow down so the boy could see the dogs.

“Nines?”

Connor was dressing up to leave the precinct. Nines was cleaning up the desk he shared with Gavin, his partner there, but the man had left one hour earlier, as always. Though the Android perfectly knew he’ll come back later to work. Sometimes, he even found him sleeping in the chair of the meeting room.

“Yes, Ha… Daddy.”

Hank ruffled his hair. “Don’t force too much, son.”

“You like when I call you Daddy.”

“Yeah, but don’t force. Anyway, quick. Do you think I can take a puppy for Connor at the shelter?”

“It’ll be happy of that. But you think you can handle two animals?”

“Sumo is getting older, you know. I want to keep that buddy forever but it’s not possible. If Connor had his own dog, that probably be easier for him when the moment will come.”

“And for you?” Nines pointed out. He looked toward his brother coming.

“Yes,” the old man replied.

The RK900 bit his lower lips because he knew Hank was getting older too. And there won’t be another dad to ease the pain.

“Okay. Good idea.”

“What?” Connor asked with a smile.

Nines passed his hand in his hair while arranging his.

“A surprise. Come in the car.”

“Okay.”

Connor said bye to the cops still there and then they left the precinct to go in the old car. The two Androids came in the back seat, as always. Nines let the window where you can see the shelter the best to his brother. But to be honest? Every night, when they arrived by the shelter, he looked as much as him. And he was as glad as his brother when their father drove slower. He loved him. And even if that was weird, he tried to call him dad as often as he could.

When the car was threw on the road, the brothers started to chat with Hank. Well, that was especially Connor who talked and when they arrived near the shelter, Connor got excited. Though the weather wasn’t good so for the puppies and dogs outside.

“Look at them! They’re so cute!!” He looked toward Nines. “It’s the same that yesterday?”

“Look at them,” Nines smiled. “And yes, that’s the same. Why you don’t have that stock in your mind?”

“He’s babbling too much,” Hank laughed, rising a bit the music.

It was Knights of the Black Death.

“Thank you, dad.” It wasn’t because of the sentence but because the man slowed the car. And even more.

Connor frowned. The car stopped?

“There is something wrong?” he asked.

“No. You want to see some puppies?”

“Oh… Oh, yes! Yes, please, yes!” Connor unfastened his security belt and opened the door to come out, excited.

Nines and Hank laughed. The man turned toward his other son before he could got out.

“Wait.”

“Yes?”

“You can choose an animal too, okay? If you wanna.”

“I don’t see any use for…”

“If you wanna, Nines. Go have fun, okay? I’ll check for Connor.” Hank opened the door. “You can stay there if you prefer. Nobody force you to anything.”

Nines looked toward the shelter.

“I’m just sayin’ I saw you look over there often. So if ya want something… Don’t hesitate.”

Nines couldn’t explain himself but he nodded and got out of the car. He waited for Hank to lock it then followed him in the shelter. The man came to see if they can visit for Connor and after few minutes, they were leaded somewhere else by a volunteer.

So, the lady turned toward Nines with a smile.

“Can I help you?”

“No, I’m waiting. Thank you.”

“Okay,” she said.

And then she started to work again. Nines stayed in the hall and looked around, without a word, without a move.

“DEBORAH!!!”

Nines jumped, slightly, and the lady with a significant way. She huffed and then turned toward the man coming to her. You could hear an angry meow.

“Is that true what they said? You’ll kill Snowball!”

“Gavin, please…”

“Not, please!! Is that true?!”

“Hm… Yes, but you know, we have a lack of place and nobody wants her. She’s aggressive and… too old.” The lady, Deborah, looked annoyed and tried to calm down Gavin but it was impossible.

“Too old?! She’s one!”

“She’s too aggressive. She attacks the other cats.”

“They piss her off!”

Nines moved slightly and bent a bit. From there, he could see Gavin Reed, a white fluffy cat with a black ribbon.

“She’s the victim! They stole her game.”

“The games are for…”

“I bought her this toy because they never let her play with them. And she’s not a playful kitty, and what? She’s a kind heart when you know her!”

“Gavin, listen. We can’t keep her.”

“You can’t kill her!”

“Adopt her?” Deborah offered.

“I can’t! You know it! I begged my landlord, I can’t have animals!”

The lady sighed softly. “I said to you it’s bad to attach yourself to the animals there. They’re adopted or…” She put her hand on his shoulder. “Listen… think of it as she was taken by someone.”

“I’ll know she’s dead!!”

“Keep calm!”

The cat groaned and her fur became even bigger.

“Excuse-me?”

Gavin turned his head and froze, caressing the cat. He looked away as the lady smiled to Nines.

“Yes?”

“Can I?” The Rk800 extended his hand to the cat but didn’t touch her.

She started to sniff him.

“Be careful she’s….”

“An adorable cat, I overhear.” Nines passed his hand on the soft fur.

She looked him, pressed against Gavin’s chest.

“I didn’t know you worked there.”

The man looked him too. They talked once in a while. After all, they worked all the time together so, sometimes, you slipped, you chatted here and there. They liked to talk but only at the precinct. Why they should talk where they were somewhere else than work? Why he should talk about that.

“I’m volunteer.”

“Okay.” He caressed Snowball. “Can I hold her?”

Deborah looked Gavin. It was a bad thing, really bad thing. But the volunteer walked toward the door and the lady forced herself to open the door, looking him as he was showing the kitty to Nines. This one showed again his hand to her before caressing the fluffy ball of purr. Or meow… Or… groan?

“You’re ready to hold her?”

“Yes.” The Android take the cat softly.

She looked him, her gold eyes frowned.

“She’s really soft.”

“Yes. And fluffy. I brush her two times by day to help her to keep nice fur.”

“You’re coming two times there?”

“It’s there I’m taking my lunch break…” Gavin said.

Nines looked him. “You said the others cats were mean with her?”

“Yeah. She lived in the street when we found her so she know how to defend herself so when the other cat piss her off, she’s stronger than them and they meow so everybody think she’s mean but…”

“I get it. She’s looking sweet.”

“But your brother will take a puppy, isn’t it? Since she’s aggressive, it’s maybe not a good thing,” Deborah said. “We don’t want you to bring the cat or the dog back.”

“Connor will take a puppy?”

“Yes. Hank wants him to have his own dog.”

“And Sumo?” Gavin frowned.

“He’s fine,” Nines replied. “Do you think he won’t get along with a puppy?”

The man shook his head. “Sumo will get along with anyone.”

“With Snowball too?”

Gavin caressed the big fluffy head. “Yeah, of course.” He looked up to Nines. “Ya wanna take her?”

“I really want to. Is it okay for you?”

“Yay… I’ll get you her stuff.”

Nines looked Gavin as he leaved the room. Deborah seemed confuse but she didn’t say a thing anyway… They were happy to let the cats, and dogs, leave. Especially when they were about to kill them. But even if Reed said she was a fluffy girl, she didn’t think that at all…

Hank and Connor came back before Gavin. They had a Bernese Moutain Dog with them. When she was the puppy, in Connor’s arms, Snowball hissed and bristly her fur. Deborah swore. Here they were.

“Phck!”

Gavin came quickly to him, letting fall the stuff and he caressed the cat, whispering soft words. He even didn’t saw Hank who stared him, frowning.

“She’ll need a bit of time to adapt,” Gavin said. “I bring you a transport box. If I put her in, that should be okay.”

“Okay, thank you. What do you bring for her?”

“Just her brush, I bought it for her. And her toy, it’s a tiny leopard fabric puppet. And I’ve an old t-shirt of mine for her. If you need others, just ask.”

“She was really spoiled,” Nines said with a soft tone.

“Maybe?”

Deborah though yes.

“She needed love,” Gavin justified.

“I’ll try to love her as much as you did. But that seems to be hard.”

Reed looked him and nodded a bit.

“You want that cat, Nines?”

“Yes, daddy. Is it okay for you?” he asked, looking toward Hank.

“That’s very okay.” The Lieutenant came to the counter. “Can we have the documents for the adoption?” He took his card in his old wallet.

As Connor was looking while Hank completed the papers, Gavin rubbed his nape. He looked the cat who was a bit confuse, her tail still puffy.

“Thank you to save her. You could have taken anything else. I’m sure you wanted a kitten…”

Nines looked him. “To be honest? I didn’t plan at all to adopt any animal. But… I saw you each time we passed by. That’s nice to you to be Volunteer here.”

“Pff, that’s nothin’. Just making me useful,” he said, caressing Snowball.

“You’re an animal lover?”

“Yay.” Gavin rubbed his nose. “Thank you, really… Without you, she’ll be…” He shook his head. “You’ll be happy with Snowball. I’m sure you’ll be great friend with her.”

“I’m sure too.”

Nines looked toward Connor.

“Can I sign myself?” he was asking.

Hank gave him the pen so the boy could sign.

“Can I also pay?” he asked with puppy eyes, his puppy in his arms.

“Of course.”

Nines smiled a bit when his dad caressed his brother hair then he looked toward Gavin, still caressing the cat and saying to her he’ll miss her.

“Gavin?”

“Yay?”

“You can come see her anytime, you know? She’ll be glad to see you, I’m sure.”

“I can?” Gavin muttered, surprised.

“Yes, of course. It’ll be a pleasure.”

Gavin smiled. “Thanks, Nines. Thank you so much…”

“You want to sign the paper?” He offered.

Hank looked the Detective and nodded when their regards meet.

“Yeah… Thank you.” Gavin hesitated but then, hugged him. “Thank you so much,” he muttered, the cat purring softly between them.

Ah! Snowball’s toy is in fact my previous cat’s toy. Just wanted to put it in there (especially because I adopted my dear Anata in a shelter... He wasn’t as spoiled as Snowball but since I miss him so much, I wanted to put a little of him in there. I can’t remember if my Minouche had a toy or something. Ah! My Minouche was a black cat and Snowball nearly ended up to be black (for the joke). In fact, Snowball was inspired by my current cat, Loki, who enjoy too much to destroy my wrist(especially when he doesn’t want to move his fat red ass!) But I love him so much <3 Also, I thought that went good for a cat Gavin will love so much?)

I was happy to write this story because to be honest, I rescued all my cat. (Minouche was throw outside; Cacahuete was beat up by her last Master; San ran away from his family; Anata was in a shelter; Loki was found in a box and savec by my best friend’s cousin before ending up at mine and finally our sweet Nataku was saved from the dead because my mom’s boss didn’t want kitten.) For me, it’s important to adopt animals who needs help. It looks awesome to have kitten and sometimes you’ve the chance to have kitten and rescuing but save an animal is really important to me. (We also saved my cockatiel Willow who was abandonned near a trash so... really fond on that!)

Let’s love our animals <3

Aw, sorry for the babbling!!!

#Reed900 week 2018 #Reed900 week 2018 Day 4 #fanfiction #it's on ao3 #Babbling about my animals #DBH #Gavinreed #RK900 #Nines #Connor rk800 #Hank anderson #Kitty #Puppy #shelter #Gavin x Rk900 #Let's love all the animals!

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fandom-necromancer · 3 years

Text

A match in stubbornness

This was prompted by the amazing @smolandangry001! Enjoy some fluff!

Fandom: Detroit become human Ship: Reed900 Warnings: None

‘You will regret that, you stupid phcking pig!’ Gavin rolled his eyes at the handcuffed man he pushed into the back of the car. ‘Listen buddy, I regret most decisions, I’ve made. But certainly not this one. Now shut up and enjoy the ride.’ He yawned, once again tired exhausted from not getting enough sleep today. He turned to see if Nines wanted to drive but met his intense, upset stare. ‘What’s wrong, tin-can?’ ‘You know what’s wrong’, he grumbled, walking around the car and opening the door. ‘No, I don’t.’

Nines had sat down and closed the door, so Gavin joined him on the passenger-seat. Nines looked out for oncoming traffic, then carefully drove off. ‘You know very well, I don’t like it, when you do that.’ ‘What?’ ‘Your self-depreciating jokes.’ Gavin groaned. ‘Really? That talk in front of that dipshit in the back?’ ‘You asked’, Nines shrugged, eyes on the road. ‘You know it affects your mental health. Humans have the tendency to sub-consciously believe whatever has been repeated the most. You are actively diminishing your sense of self-worth.’ ‘Nines, humans also have the tendencies to cope by using humour.’ ‘Then maybe you should start being funny.’ ‘Wow, someone’s pissed…’ Gavin snuffled and turned to the window.

‘I’m not… pissed’, Nines spoke up at the next red-light and turned to him. ‘I’m just… Gavin, you are a remarkably intelligent person and I doubt anything you truly regret you could have changed. Sometimes causality escapes our grasp.’ ‘Phck, Nines, I know I was unlucky! It’s a saying. Get a grip! It’s nothing big, just a phrase. Now shut up, this is embarrassing. Besides, you tried it countless times already but never managed to change me.’ ‘I don’t want to change-‘ ‘Stop it. You want. Don’t lie to me.’

Nines sighed and got back to driving them to the precinct. Arguing with Gavin rarely lead to anything substantial and he believed in this case it wouldn’t be too different. He didn’t want him to change. He just wanted him to see what he was seeing. Nines just hated it when Gavin made these comments about himself. And he wasn’t the most advanced unit ever created if he would give up just because words didn’t work.

The drive home after work was a quiet one, them both listening to music, but feeling the uncomfortable atmosphere hanging in the air. Still, it took them until they had actually reached their flat that Nines asked: ‘Are you angry with me?’ Gavin flinched and straightened his back. ‘What?’ ‘Are you angry with me? Because of today?’ The human sighed. ‘Nines, phck… No. No, I’m not angry, today, just like every other day, just wasn’t my day.’ He let himself fall on the sofa and Nines followed, lightly placing his hands on his shoulders. Slowly he dragged them upwards until his fingers were buried in Gavin’s hair and gently scraped over his scalp. A pleased hum was his thanks as he continued the slow movements. ‘I think, just like every other day, you were quite remarkable.’ Nines saw the frown on his face and placed a single finger on his lips even before Gavin could disagree. ‘Shhh. Don’t talk. You were the one who found out our suspect was still at the scene. Without you he would have run free.’

He retracted his finger to brush it across the man’s lower jaw and go deeper with his hands to massage his neck. ‘Someone else could have found him.’ ‘But someone else didn’t’, Nines reminded him, fully concentrated on his newest mission. ‘And now shut up and enjoy. ‘Every day you surprise me anew. Your thoughts are fascinating to me. Everyday you show me why I love you. Everyday I find another facete of you to adore.’

Gavin smiled, eyes long closed bathing in the attention. ‘And I always wonder how you can get even sappier every night. I don’t deserve you.’ ‘You deserve everything you can imagine and more’, the android disagreed, pressing a kiss to his forehead while letting his hands run deeper to his shoulders and upper back. Gavin obediently turned around to give him better access to his sore muscles. ‘Bullshit, I’m trash and you are the tin-can that takes care of me.’ Nines might have squeezed a little harder at this. ‘Gavin…’ ‘What? Can’t get used to this much sweet-talk now, can I?’ ‘Why?’, the android asked. ‘Think you ever get rid of me?’ ‘So far my shitty personality was a pretty good way to stay single.’

‘Gavin, you are an amazing person, you just don’t let people close to you easily. I’m honoured to see you as you are.’ The man grumbled something incomprehensible into the cushions. ‘Gavin, I thoroughly hope you simply agreed to me just now.’ Gavin turned around and grabbed his hands. ‘I love you’, he repeated. ‘Even though you are wrong.’

‘I’m the superior machine. I’m always right.’ ‘I know.’ Nines counted that as a win, even if they still had a long way to go. But a RK always accomplished it’s mission and he was ready to prove that again and again. ‘I love you, too. Enough for both of us.’

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #fluff

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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

Text

1446. Dude, I am not being your wingman.

This was prompted by a lovely anon! I hope this is what you expected, if not, I have an alternate version I could write for you with a similar setting but slightly different plot. Enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

Nines watched Gavin over the DPD’s security cameras. The GJ500 responsible wouldn’t notice him using the system anyways and he liked to keep a tab open on the human. Bad enough that he would have to face two days without the man, working with whoever beat-cop needed his help. No, he could watch him a little longer. The Detective was talking to Tina. He seemed excited and displayed the special facial expression he normally only showed when he had come up with a plan for their missions. Nines couldn’t help but smile even though he couldn’t hear anything. Well, technically, he could enhance his auditory receptors, but that would be a breach of privacy. He just kept the window open in his HUD and finished the remaining work for the day.

‘Hey, you free tonight?’, Gavin asked, as he came back, as casually as possible. He sat down and pushed his feet on top of the desk, leaning back to look at the android opposite to him. ‘I don’t have any work, that’s right. Why do you ask?’ ‘Oh, just… You know how it is…’ ‘No, I’m afraid I don’t.’ The android had stopped interfacing with the terminal in front of him and the android’s full attention made Gavin anxious. ‘Ah… Well, you know I normally go out with Tina on a Friday night to bars, but she isn’t free tonight, so I thought maybe you would…’ Nines’ frown made him re-evaluate his decision. ‘Gavin, as you put it once: “Dude, I’m not being your wingman.”’, the android answered, knowing exactly, what it normally was Gavin and Tina did in these bars. ‘Hey, it doesn’t have to be that kind of- urgh. Nines, I thought with you staying at work all the time it would be fun to do something different? Would do you good to get out of here every once in a while.’ The android looked at him with this utterly neutral expression and Gavin was sure he was scanning him. The silence lasted so long, Gavin decided to drop the conversation completely. ‘Just forget it, was a silly idea’, Gavin mumbled at the same time as Nines said: ‘Fine.’

Gavin blushed, looking up embarrassed. ‘Oh, well, then… I guess.’ ‘What time did you have in mind?’ ‘I don’t know… Eight?’ ‘Eight.’

They shared an automated taxi to the bar Gavin had chosen and there was an uncomfortable silence hanging over the cabin. Gavin’s plan had included getting Nines drunk enough to maybe talk a bit more open than normally. They had been partners for a long time now, they got along well, and he was sure Nines was the only person in the precinct besides Tina he actually liked and that liked him back. He didn’t have a crush on the bot, it was just that he could imagine… Hell, maybe it was a crush, who was he to suddenly acknowledge his feelings? What was important was the question whether Nines felt the same way. Maybe tonight was the time for it.

They entered the bar he and Tina liked because it was cheep but still clean enough, played good music and had a small dance floor in the back. Made it easy to pick up some people for a bit of fun. But no, that’s not what he was here for today. They took a booth in a quieter corner and the silence nearly hurt. ‘So, err… Good work on the case’, Gavin tried to start a conversation. ‘Thanks. Not a lot to do though, the man confessed as soon as I confronted him with solid evidence.’ Gavin knew, he had been there. ‘Still, one of the quickest confessions I’ve seen so far.’ He smiled at the android and relaxed as the conversation flowed naturally. It was just about work, but well, they were talking, that had to count for something. After they finished with their most recent case though, there was a pause again.

This time, Nines broke it, asking Gavin what drink he would like. Gavin told him and watched the android walk towards the counter. The human sighed and pulled out his phone and checked his messages from Tina. Hey, Gavo, how’s it going? Kissed yet? Good luck! Gavin grimaced, then pushed the phone back without answering. So far it went terrible. Gavin hadn’t thought talking with someone he only knew from work would end this badly. Why was he so good at picking up random people but struggled asking someone out he actually knew? He risked a glance at the counter where he saw Nines talking with another android and even laughing. Well, shit. That was that then. That explained a lot. Of course, the android wouldn’t want to talk to him, a human. Why had he thought… Goddamn, the android wasn’t even good looking. And they had been designed to be attractive. Likely some servant bot or something. What the hell did this android had that he didn’t? Or maybe Nines was just…

He had been caught staring, as two glasses were put down in front of Nines and he turned around to come back stoic as ever. Well, Gavin didn’t give two phcks and simply pretended nothing had happened. ‘Met someone?’, He snapped, snatching his beer. ‘Oh, yeah, he was nice’, Nines answered politely, toasting towards Gavin and pouring down a bit of the blue liquid in his glass. ‘Nice, huh?’ The android looked at him confused. ‘Nice. Yes. That’s what I said.’ ‘Why not go over there then and spend the rest of the evening with him?’, Gavin pushed further. ‘Why should I? I’m here with you.’ ‘Well, he is nice.’ ‘Gavin, I don’t intend on taking part in any activity, you and Tina may pursue in these… nights.’ ‘Really?’, the human asked. ‘Really, there is no one in this bar you would like to… y’know?’ Nines looked around and seemed really uncomfortable in his skin. ‘Not really… At least not with most of them…’ ‘That means there is someone here? Come on, Nines, you can tell me. I can go home early, no problem. Who caught your eye?’

Nines stayed silent, but Gavin had already declared it his own personal goal. If Nines didn’t feel anything for him, he wanted to at least know why. ‘Fine. Android or human?’ ‘I don’t know how that is-‘ ‘Android of human.’ ‘I don’t have a preference.’ ‘Gender?’ ‘I don’t have a preference and this is deeply personal, I-‘ ‘Come on, just say what’s your type and I’ll be off your back!’ ‘Fine!’, Nines had slammed his glass down, leaving a little indent on the wooden table he immediately brushed over with his hand as if that would even it out again. ‘Fine’, he repeated calmer.

‘My “type” is not really something I can describe as I only ever experienced attraction to one person, but-‘ ‘Who is that person?’, Gavin pushed on. ‘Come on man, I’m tired from work, I don’t have the mental capacity to play “who am I” with you.’ Nines stared at him and Gavin couldn’t figure out if he was just thinking about telling him or taking him by the neck and beginning a bar-fight. ‘There is a certain Detective in my precinct I just can’t get my eyes off’, He then smirked after what felt like an eternity of quiet and leaned on the table. ‘I think you have the mental capacity to figure that one out.’

For how much of a smartass the android was, he was wrong. Because Gavin’s brain had just stopped working at all. He may have imagined that he one day told Nines and that he maybe agreed to trying it out. But Nines being interested in him? There had to be something strange in his beer. Nines face fell. ‘What is it? I… I mean you. I would like to get to know you better and maybe we could figure something out? I like your company, the main reason I don’t like the days you have off. I thought you getting jealous over the android and pressing like that, you might think the same way? Or am I incorrect?’

The silence made Gavin shake out of it. He continued to stare at the table, but there was a faint smile on his face. ‘I would have never thought of the possibility you felt the same. I have a huge crush on you since… Well, really since that one case, you remember that one? The Red Ice gang two months ago?’ ‘And that means?’, Nines asked, unsure what else to say now that he had told his mind. ‘That means we definitely have to get to know each other better and figure something out.’ Gavin threw him a cocky grin and sipped his beer. ‘Starting today?’ ‘If you’d like, sure.’

#Detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #Two awkward idiots #the alternate story would be Gavin saying this line and being jealous of Nines to.#But I couldn't think of a way to put a trick in it.#Don't think I managed it in this fic either lol #Hope you still like it!#Hit me up if you want that alternative story!

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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

Text

1033. I don’t like the way they look at you.

This was prompted by the awesome @aurea-b and I... had fun XD Enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

‘Is there anything else I can bring you, Sirs?’, Gavin politely asked, while he disguised his search of any hint or piece of evidence as gathering empty glasses. ‘Hmm, that fancy android over there, if you don’t mind.’ Gavin hadn’t expected that answer and followed the finger of the man before him over to the central pole of the club. Of course… ‘I’m afraid we are not that kind of club, Sir.’ ‘How about a private dance then, beautiful?’ He had grabbed Gavin by the hand he was reaching for a glass with. ‘Sir, touching is prohibited in this club’, Gavin pressed through his teeth, trying his hardest not to snap and let his fist find its way right into his face. Although he had to play the clueless waiter, he knew exactly who was sitting there right in front of him: One of Detroit’s worst human traffickers. Until now they had only gotten a name, Andrew Jones, and the last sign of life of an android dancer. A message left behind before he had been abducted, just like countless others in his line of work. All androids. Most of them from this club.

The club Nines and Gavin were currently working at as undercover agents. Being the only other android-human partners of the precinct when Anderson couldn’t have played the “sexy waiter” even if he had been ten years younger, really was unfortunate. Gavin wouldn’t have described himself as that either, but apparently the manager of the club had decided otherwise. Nines on the other hand had simply downloaded some Tracy-programs and used his own to hack the application process.

Thankfully Jones let him go, although it had only been after a few beats of prolonged contact, just to show that he could. Oh, how Gavin longed for a fight with this stick of a man, mission be damned. ‘I’ll see what I can do, Sir.’ ‘Yeah, go see.’ Gavin turned around and tried to remember who else had sat in that booth with the criminal. Who were they? Costumers? Partners? Just friends? Whoever they were they requested a private dance from Nines, who was just stepping down from the pole to retreat backstage. They had their eyes on him and although that was generally a good thing because the android could figure out a lot more things if he was that near to them, it also was the first step to being kidnapped. The android they had gotten the message from had been selected for a private dance with this man and was never found again.

His worry seemed to show as he ducked behind the counter to unload the empty glasses, because Julia, the bartender looked him up and down. ‘Something happened?’ Gavin couldn’t let Nines’ cover be blown, even if the woman was trustworthy. So he simply said: ‘Over at table twelve, the guy touched me. Just the wrist, no big deal, but…’ ‘But it’s disgusting. Yeah, I understand. Should I get someone else to fetch their drinks?’ ‘Nah, no need. He wants a private dance with one of the dancers though. The rooms free at the moment?’ ‘They should be. Do you know who he wants?’ ‘The new one. Android, tall, -‘ ‘Exactly your type?’ Gavin looked at the woman shocked, but she just laughed. ‘Hey, I have eyes and I see how you look at him when you walk past. Don’t worry about me, I have no problems with relationships between co-workers. Just keep it private.’ Gavin swallowed. ‘Err… yeah…’ ‘Here!’ She pulled a few bottles of water from under the counter. ‘Bring that backstage and tell him. Tell him to be careful, too. I know people are disappearing and the police, as always, does jack shit about it.’ Gavin grinded his teeth at that, but nodded and took the package. ‘Oh and Gavin? I noticed he looked at you too, so good luck!’

He slipped past the curtain into the relative privacy of the changing compartments. Not that there were a lot of clothes to wear, just a lot of different outfits for different shows. He was on the lookout for Nines, what wasn’t too difficult as he spotted the tall android right from the door. Gavin sat the water bottles down at the entrance and hurried over. ‘Hey, Nines, you are- Ugh, Goddamn, put some clothes on, will ya?’ ‘Gavin, you saw me naked enough times, this is childish.’ ‘Yeah, well, they haven’t!’ He gestured to the rest of the room that was still very open. ‘Actually…’ ‘Okay, stop, they want you for a private dance.’ ‘Who?’, the android asked as he pulled some pants on – not really covering more than underwear would have. ‘Idiot. Our suspects of course.’ Gavin watched as Nines put on several glowing rings around his wrists and slowly adding more and more jewellery until he nearly wore more than clothes. ‘Oh! Perfect. Then this case is finally going somewhere.’ ‘I don’t like the way they look at you’, Gavin grumbled, leaning against the dressing table while Nines applied make-up and tested out new patterns with his artificial skin. His performance always consisted of some kind of display how synthetic he was. Retracting his skin and letting it reappear to the music, playing with how much he let the costumers see. With that he had made it one of the top attractions in record time and Gavin had to admit it was quite entrancing.

‘Oh, Gav, darling. It could have been the light, but I sensed you looked at me the same way.’ Nines looked up to him and smiled and though it was still alien to see him with make-up, he had to admit the android was absolutely beautiful. ‘Yeah, well, I don’t plan to abduct you and sell you to the highest bidder!’ ‘Really? And here I thought romance was dead.’ Gavin threw him a warning look. ‘Oh, come on, Gavin. I’m the most advanced model there is. Fowler installed more trackers inside me than Cyberlife did. If I get abducted this will finally put an end to innocent people getting sold off. Really, in this example the worst case is the best-case scenario.’ ‘For the mission maybe. But for you? What if they find out we’re cops and decide to kill you?’ ‘Gav, you worry too much. If anything goes wrong, then I still have you looking out for me, haven’t I, love?’ He reached up to Gavin’s shoulders to pull him into a kiss, before standing up. ‘I’ll get ready for it; you can show them to room four. I’ll reset the bugs there.’ ‘Okay. Stay safe.’ ‘Will do.’

Gavin went back behind the bar to get the keys for the room, before stopping in front of Julia’s grinning face. ‘What is it?’ ‘Oh, nothing… Just that I was right, wasn’t it? Ah, you two go so well together! You definitely have to tell me more when your shift’s over! Now hurry! Back to work!’ On the way back to the booth, Gavin rubbed his mouth with his sleeve. Damn black lipstick…

‘Ah, our beautiful waiter is back! And, what about that private dance?’ Gavin couldn’t look the man in the eyes, as he jingled with the keys. ‘If the sirs would follow me to room four? Your dancer is waiting.’ Jones hurried to come to his feet, urging his partners to stand up too. Gavin waited until they were up to lead the way. He entered the room and as everyone was in, Nines appeared, walking overly seductively towards them. Gavin felt bile rising up seeing him cupping Jones’ cheek in fake affection. ‘Now, gentlemen, what can I do for you today?’, he cooed, and Gavin pulled the door closed.

He carried drinks and empty glasses back and forth and looked on his watch every few minutes. They had booked an hour, had paid wirelessly over Nines hooked up to the club’s systems. It was the longest hour in Gavin’s life and no matter how that would set back the mission, he hoped for Nines to just get out of there and their suspect leaving. The worst was not knowing. The bugs they had installed were record only. Transmissions to an outside source could have been detected. So, it was only ten minutes after their time had ended and no one had exited, that Gavin knew something was wrong. The thought appeared the same time Nines message came in. Gavin. Get a car. Something went wrong. Your phone is set to navigate you to me. We are driving.

Immediately, Gavin reacted. He let the empty glasses fall back onto the table and sprinted to the bar. ‘Julia, I need your car.’ ‘You what?’ Gavin ripped his badge from his pocket and shoved it in her face. ‘I. Need. Your. Car.’ ‘Holy shit you are from the police. Oh damn and I said-‘ ‘Forget what you said, there is an android getting abducted from your club right now. I need your phcking car. Right now!’ ‘Of course, but you should rather-‘ ‘No buts! Car! NOW!’

Julia nodded, fetched her jacket and ran to the parking lot after Gavin. He looked around for her car and froze, as she unlocked a 1975 vintage Fiat 500. ‘Ex-phcking-cuse me?’ ‘I told you you should have rather taken John’s car, he drives a-‘ ‘Doesn’t matter now. There’s no time. Go.’

‘Doesn’t this thing have a gas pedal of some sorts?’, Gavin shouted at her from the passenger seat. The damn car was tiny as phck and for once he was glad to be too tiny as phck. But right now, every emotion he felt was anger. Anger about how they crawled through Detroit’s streets tailing a black dodge challenger. Their only hope was the cities well known and well hated rush hour that they were stuck in just as bad as their target. ‘Hey, you are a cop!’ ‘Yeah, and that means my word is law! Now go over the damn speed limit!’ ‘Alright, pretty sure that doesn’t mean that, but as long as you pay my speeding tickets-‘ ‘I’ll phcking pay you anything as long as you find that gas pedal and press it through the damn floor!’ ‘Alright, alright!’ Gavin was pressed into the seat as Julia seemed to take his advice literally. And once they got speed she was willing to break every traffic rule there was: She changed into the oncoming traffic and slalomed her way through every traffic jam. ‘Don’t tell me this is top speed?’ ‘What do you think this is? I loved that car ever since I saw it and it is amazing if you want to find a spot to park! Now, will you stop complaining? What do you plan to do once we reach them?’ ‘If we reach them, that is! This damn toy can’t compete!’ ‘Okay. You insult my car? Now I prove to you speed isn’t everything!’

Gavin regretted his decision dearly. Because whatever the tiny car told about its owner… Julia seemed to be a rally driver. Cutting every turn perfectly and finding small parallel streets or even a park to race through, they managed to catch up.

Gavin. Are you… driving in a Fiat? ‘Are you wearing make-up?’, Gavin spat back although the android couldn’t hear him. Make room in the passenger side, I’m coming. Drive to the left… now! Gavin pushed Julia’s steering wheel to the side without a warning, trusting her to manage getting them back on track as the trunk of the car in front of them was ripped open and the hood clattering to the street before quickly disappearing. Gavin climbed into the back of the already crowded car, as Julia steered it expertly next to the trunk and pushed the door open. Nines managed to jump over and land more or less gracefully inside but had to huddle over his knees to fit. Gavin reached forwards handing Nines his gun that the android took with a surprisingly unphased: ‘Thanks, babe.’ As if getting abducted was fun. ‘Wait, you two are really…?’ Nines nodded, picking at his too tight, uncomfortable and sole piece of clothing. ‘We are. Now keep the car straight, please.’ He opened the window and leaned half his upper body outside, taking aim and shot. They watched, as his bullet hit the other car, piercing the tire and it spiralled out of control. ‘Hank and Connor are informed; backup is on the way. But we have to keep them here. Julia, if you would be so kind to park the car? Gav and I have some traffickers to arrest.’ The woman nodded and Nines was half out of the door, before he asked: ‘You wouldn’t have some additional clothes somewhere, would you?’ ‘Unfortunately not. But it suits you.’ ‘Hmm. That’s not really the point…’ Gavin groaned from the backseat as he himself wasn’t exactly presentable with his tight leather pants and deep V-necked shirt. ‘That will be enough joke-material for years to come…’

‘I would say, you look rather handsome’, Nines commented, now that they were outside walking side by side towards the other car. ‘Oh, phck off!’ ‘Come on, it was fun!’ ‘It was not!’ ‘Why? Are you jealous you didn’t get to have a “private dance” with me?’ Gavin was about to shout expletives at the android, before shaking his head. ‘You know what? Maybe I am!’ ‘Aw, Detective, no one said I would have to delete this programming after the mission is done.’ Well, that sounded… promising.

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #Sexy Nines and Car chases

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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

Text

571. What are you doing here?

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warnings: talking about death in the end)

‘Meet your new partner, the newest RK-unit. One of the late deviant additions to our team and I believe you will get along just fine.’ Then: ‘Hello, my name is Nines and I’m looking forwards to working with you.’ Gavin knew then and there that the world as he knew it had ended.

It had ended a few weeks prior already, but a man could live in denial a few weeks, couldn’t he? Sentient robots rising up, being deemed as equals and everyone was supposed to just get along from one day to the next. He had hoped to be spared the torture of having a damn tin-can at his heels at work, but apparently, he just wasn’t lucky. By the time the Connor-lookalike stood in front of him, hand outstretched for him to take, he just had accepted his fate. He looked at the creepily human hand, then up to the face, murmured ‘Phck my life’ and walked out the way he came, waving the android to follow him without any motivation.

He endured the day, although he had to admit the android wasn’t any more insufferable as any human partner. Eventually he would learn Gavin was not one for talking, being friends with or anything vaguely social to begin with. Or he would ask for a transfer. Both was fine with the man. So, as his shift was over he logged himself out, shut down his terminal and walked out of the precinct to head home. The last thing he heard before he was outside was Nines’ voice, sighing: ‘Well, that could have gone worse.’

Gavin grunted as he finally reached the end of the stairs and reached into his pocket to get his keys untangled from his headphone cord. He yearned to sink into his couch or maybe even a warm bath? His back direly needed some care after a whole day of sitting on his desk tense and on edge. Hell, he would manage. If he was anything then adaptable. He could swallow his personality at work, as long as everyone left him alone. He still had his life outside of work to relax and unwind. Walking forwards leaned to the side to balance the groceries he had bought after work, his back gave him an entirely new feeling of hell. Yep, definitely hot bath. As he finally got his keys free, he looked up towards his door and froze.

‘What are you doing here?’, he asked completely perplexed, as he met the android’s eyes. It was the same damn robot. ‘I am entering my apartment.’ ‘Your what?’ ‘My apartment, Detective.’ ‘Wha-wha-what the hell?’ Gavin looked from the android to the door next to his own. ‘You did this on purpose?’ ‘No, Detective. New Jericho distributes a place to live for any android who wishes to have one. I have to repay them a previously invested sum and my rent. But I didn’t choose this apartment.’ ‘This is some kind of joke right?’ ‘No’, the android answered, unlocking his own door. ‘Good evening Detective.’

The android disappeared into the apartment right next to Gavin’s own and he spent a good amount of time staring at the closed door. Oh, this had to be a joke!

The next morning Gavin had suppressed everything that happened the previous day. He would let the world hit him as soon as he would enter the precinct. For now: Coffee. He finished his cup in the kitchen mindlessly petting his cat that lay on the table. Then he gathered his belongings and braced himself for leaving his little oasis.

He opened the door just to see the android next door do the same. Gavin stared at the RK900 feeling no emotion except resignation. ‘Good morning, Detective!’ Gavin groaning and slamming the door on him was his answer. Gavin would just be five minutes late today.

‘Another day survived, Liz!’, Gavin announced stretching his back as soon as he had changed into something more comfortable. At least on his way back he was spared meeting the android again. Maybe this was bearable, as long as they timed their arrival and departure right? He put out dinner for his cat and then moved to the couch to just lay there for a while. In the total silence he could hear the door to the apartment next to him being opened, then closed. Great. Tin-can in the house.

It stayed silent for a while. Then Gavin could hear music wafting through the walls. It wasn’t as loud as Gavin liked to hear his, but he could still make out some words and the melody. Enough to realise it was a complete disaster of a playlist. Songs popular in the radio followed 80s pop, Irish folk songs interrupted death metal. Then an hour of violin music with various sounds of nature added in. Something that sounded like the choir of a medieval church. Radio songs again. Punk. It started to get on his nerves after the third hour and Gavin decided to just go to bed and drown it out with his noise-cancelling headphones.

Nines had realised early on, that Reed didn’t like him. But he didn’t hate him either he supposed, so it was a welcomed neutral stance. He could work like that. Them living next to each other had been a shock for the man, but after Nines left home before the detective and came back after him there had been no further problems. They ignored each other completely in their private lives and although Nines had hoped to maybe make a few friends in his neighbourhood, it wasn’t like he needed it.

This morning he listened for the sound of the Detective’s door and waited five more minutes. The man should have departed by then and there wouldn’t be any confrontation until they were both at work. But as he walked out of the building he saw Reed vividly cursing at his car, bend over the hood and shaking his head. Nines stood there watching him. Should he speak to him or keep up their mutual ignorance? Maybe this was a chance to better their relationship? ‘Whatcha staring at, tin-can?’ Too late now. ‘I wanted to ask if you needed help with your car.’ ‘Yeah, well, phcking thing won’t start. And with these fancy electric ones it is difficult to find the reason for it. Back in the day you just looked at it and when something seemed or sounded wrong you knew exactly what would have to be repaired.’ ‘May I then?’, Nines asked, surprised by the Detectives lack of abrasiveness. He had thought to be fobbed off with a hissed ‘None of your business.’ ‘Sure’, the human sighed, stepping back and waving to the car. ‘Knock yourself out.’

Nines came nearer, carful not to step into the man’s personal space he had long since worked out from observing him around others. He searched for a place to interface with it and accessed it’s internal systems. ‘Easy. Your car has a software error. It thinks the battery is depleted although it just didn’t realise it was temporarily disconnected while it was recharging.’ Reed stepped from one foot to the other warily. ‘Well, can you convince her otherwise?’ ‘Already done, Detective.’ He stepped back to close the hood, cocking his head to the side. ‘Christine? A nice name.’ ‘Hmm? Yeah, it’s from some old movie, where… You know what, never mind.’ He walked around to the driver’s side and scratched his neck. ‘Err… You need a ride to the precinct? I mean, since you kinda repaired my car…’ ‘Only if it’s not a problem for you. I can call myself a taxi.’ ‘Ugh, get in toaster. Just don’t think I’ll give you more rides in the future.’

Although he had said he wouldn’t do it, the Detective had offered the android to take him back home again. Reasoning it was needlessly complicated to keep avoiding each other when they lived next door. His only condition was they wouldn’t talk, and Nines could do that. They climbed up the stairs and Gavin walked faster in the hallway to his door, so he was the first one to open it. ‘Mreeow!’ A little black ball of fur was sprinting out the door and down the hall, followed by a screamed ‘Phck!’ Acting on instinct, Nines moved into the path and scooped up what he discovered was a cat. ‘Stupid ball of fur! I know I’m late, idiot cat!’ The Detective was running towards him and the android handed her over. ‘Thank you, toaster. She is the most idiotic animal I know. Sorry!’ Then he disappeared through the open door and left Nines to listen to the angry screams from inside as Gavin scolded his cat verbally. She did talk back to him though. So, Reed had a cat, huh? Apparently, the man wasn’t that aloof after all.

After Gavin had been appropriately angry with his stupid cat, he cuddled her for good measures. Afterwards he prepared a meal for himself and fed Liz. As he sat down to eat, the music next door started up again. This time some songs were missing, entire genres even, as it seemed. Others stayed and new ones were added. Only then it clicked that maybe the android was trying to determine his taste in music and find new songs to listen to. Surprisingly the RK900 had good taste. Gavin listened to it and smiled as one song he liked himself came on and the android seemed to like it enough to play on repeat for a while. Maybe the android wasn’t that bad.

It was late in the evening as Nines came home. He had been out with Connor and Hank to see a movie. Nines hadn’t particularly liked it, but he had only ever seen one movie before that one and thought he needed more to base his likes and dislikes on. It was already dark and the lights in the hallway weren’t the best. Still, Nines could see light flowing from Reed’s apartment, illuminating two figures in the doorway. Two men, one the Detective, one someone he didn’t know. They were kissing and so preoccupied they didn’t even realise they weren’t alone anymore. Nines hurried to unlock his door before they did, noticed the smell of alcohol sticking to them, and closed the door behind him.

The next morning the ride to work was as awkward as it could be. The human didn’t seem to mind, but Nines was thankful for their agreement not to talk. That was until the man broke the silence himself: ‘Hey, toaster, what has you all worked up?’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Your mood light. All red. Something, I should know before we arrive at work? Caught a virus or something?’ ‘Oh.’ Nines checked his stress levels and blushed. ‘I just… I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.’ Reed flinched. ‘Shit. Were we that loud? I’m so sorry, toaster, I know that’s phcking disgusting to hear…’ ‘No!’, Nines immediately blurted out. ‘No, I didn’t hear anything.’ And he definitely didn’t want to hear anything more, now that he had realised the Detective wasn’t showing any shame talking about it. ‘I came back late yesterday and saw him.’ ‘Oh phck. Yeah, I thought I heard something in the hallway yesterday. Anyways, he is not my boyfriend.’ ‘He isn’t?’, Nines asked despite himself. He was curious, okay? That was entirely normal for a neighbour. ‘Nines, ever heard of one-night stands?’, Reed answered. ‘We were just blowing off some steam.’ Then he laughed bitterly. ‘The man that wants to stay with me permanently has yet to be invented.’

‘Holy shit, this reeks!’ ‘He has been dead for two weeks already, Detective. That much is to be expected at this stage of decay.’ ‘Ugh, how has no one even found him yet? The neighbours have to smell that three floors down.’ ‘It was a neighbour who contacted us because of this smell.’ ‘Yeah, but still… No one noticed he was missing? Workplace? Friends? Family? Some phcking bar-tender?’ Nines sighed. ‘According to prior interviews he was what you would describe as an “asshole” at work, so they just thought he had quit. No friends anyone knows of. There are still a brother and a sister, but they got into a fight over inheritance money and haven’t spoken since 2033.’ ‘Phck. That strikes home…’ ‘What do you mean, Detective?’ ‘None of your phcking business’, Reed hissed and put on his gloves, stepping closer to the body to examine what little evidence there was. Nines was naturally curious. But he also knew when it was the right time to ask questions and it wasn’t now. So, he kept quiet.

That day Reed had been especially reclusive. The ride home had been dead silent with the radio turned so low it could as well have been shut off completely. With only so much as a ‘Bye toaster’ the man had vanished into his apartment, leaving Nines behind to wonder what had upset his neighbour that much. Had it been his question? A murder or suicide case with a body two weeks dead. Striking home. Nines couldn’t find a satisfactory connection, so he just decided to leave the man alone. Maybe in a few days he could ask again. Or maybe after the case was closed.

He entered his own apartment and began cleaning it. He hadn’t anything else to do and didn’t feel like listening to music. It occupied him a few hours, until he had reached his bedroom, a simple bed and his stasis-booth. He had tried “falling asleep” in a bad like a human but had ultimately failed. It didn’t feel safe somehow, to lay down. It was also directly next to the Detective’s living room and he could hear nearly every word.

He was shaking out the bedsheets as he heard a sound he had never before. It was very quiet and came from the other’s apartment. Was this… crying? He went to the wall and listened more intently. Yes, that were definitely sobs. He took a step back staring at the wall. Detective Reed was crying. A simple fact.

Now what should he do? Should he even do something? Whatever had upset the Detective today most likely was the reason for this too. And the man hadn’t liked his questioning back then. Maybe him going over and check in on him was invasion of privacy. He shouldn’t go. He should stick to their tactic of ignoring each other.

But it was too late as his legs had already brought him to Reed’s door. And he knocked. The crying from inside stopped. Then there was an answer: ‘Phck off!’ Nines waited for a while. But he decided against following the order. ‘Detective, are you okay?’ ‘Obviously not!’, the wavering voice screamed at the door. ‘But it’s not your problem.’ ‘If it interferes with your ability to go to work tomorrow, it is’, he tried joking. That normally helped. But he was met with silence. ‘I’m sorry’, he apologised. ‘Can I help you?’ ‘Phck off to some scrapyard and get compressed into something useful, will you?’ ‘Detective, please, may I come in?’ ‘What is so difficult about the phrase “Phck off”? It means: GO. AWAY.’ ‘Detective. 98% of interviewed people state that talking about distress helps.’ ‘Don’t you statistic me! I’m fine. Go.’ ‘Please. At least tell me what is going on, so I can sleep.’

Again, there was silence. Then footsteps. Then the door was unlocked, and a tear-stained face emerged. ‘You are one persistent bastard.’ ‘I’m only worried.’ ‘Fine. Come in. I don’t want to have the whole floor know about my personal shit.’ Nines followed the human inside and realised then he had never been to his flat before. It was very lively, nicely decorated too. It showed the personality his own still lacked. Reed let himself fall onto the sofa and pulled his knees to his chin. Nines felt lost. ‘So, you gonna stand there forever or come sit?’ ‘Oh, Of course.’ He sat down next to the man but kept his distance.

‘I will tell you this once, and we will never talk about it again, you got me? Never. I’m not one for personal talk, but you are alright. You understand what it means to be patient and don’t act as if you had a right to know everything about everyone. Makes you damn likeable.’ Nines just nodded. ‘And if you ever talk to anyone about it or tell them I cried, I will-‘ ‘Got it, Detective. I won’t.’ ‘I’m lonely. I know I’m an asshole, but even disgusting people can get lonely. I have a brother I decided to hate and can’t bring myself to apologise. He tried keeping in touch, but I ignored him. By the time I wanted to get back in contact he had given up, so I did too. I’m an ambitious asshole at work who doesn’t care for personal relationships. Guess I felt the need to make everything a competition. But some self-centred careerist makes little friends. And once I’m home I’m home and I don’t leave again until work because you gotta take all the time you got, right? Doesn’t matter what you do as long as you could do something and then you end up binging some old movies and series. And I’m fine. I’m fine with being a loner most of the time. Just… When I see things like we saw today… What if that’s me? When I suddenly die because someone decided to take it out on the detective that found them? What if I die and no one realises it? As I said, I’m an asshole at work, people would be happy to have me gone. My brother wouldn’t even realise it because I’m basically dead to him already. And no friends to miss me either. Phck, I would lie here until someone notices the smell and I’m not even that sad about it because hey, I won’t be there to experience it, but what’s with Liz? She is stuck with me and needs me to feed her. And… And… Phck, I don’t want to be some cold case no one bothers to investigate really, because what a sad phck this dead guy is, dying alone and-‘

‘I would miss you.’

‘What?’ ‘I would miss you, Detective. I like you.’ ‘Yeah, bullshit, we never even talk.’ ‘I have nothing to talk about. I am alive for what? Four months? Not much to experience yet. With you it’s easy to pretend that… doesn’t matter. You are very competent, and your personality isn’t that bad once you found out what words were meant to strike. I would notice would you suddenly disappear and… And I think I wouldn’t like being alone again.’ Reed stared at him for a while disbelievingly. ‘You are shitting me, toaster, you think we are friends? From just that? God, that’s even more sad than my story.’ ‘I don’t think we are friends yet, Detective. But I would like to be one day. I could even…’ He sighed. ‘Reed… Gavin. I like you. I don’t want to see you in pain. I don’t want to hear you cry. And I don’t want you to be lonely, because you don’t deserve that. Make of that what you want. But be reassured, you won’t end like this man. You have a tin-can for a neighbour after all.’ Gavin chuckled awkwardly, trying hard not to process at what the android had hinted. ‘Are you better, Detective?’, Nines asked. ‘I think I am now.’

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #Gavin Reed #RK900 #Don't mind me I'm just torturing my favourites again #Sweet bois are sweet

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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

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1302. I thought we were friends.

This was prompted by an amazing anon! Don’t worry, it sounds like an AU at first but it isn’t! Enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

‘Yeah, yeah, of course you got the smug face right!’, Gavin laughed, sitting legs crossed on Elijah’s desk. The boy stood proudly next to the android, who consisted mostly of skeletal metal. Only the face and hands were moulded with plastic, as they were working on the gestures at the moment. The walk and run cycle had been finished by now, as well as a rudimentary software for analysing situations, emotions and reacting to them. The most recent one had been learning, but Elijah had restricted that to simple tasks for now. At Gavin’s comment, he frowned and scratched his stubble he had grown ever since it didn’t look like total shit. Gavin never stopped to tease him about it. ‘Oh, come on, I worked hours on that, Gav!’ ‘Yeah, I know! And it looks really good. But it’s so you to get the smug expression right and fail with a smile.’ ‘Okay, fine, point taken.’ ‘Maybe if you didn’t pull all-nighters all the time, you would actually smile and practise it yourselves!’ ‘Ugh, Gavin, if you build an android I’m sure he could curse like a sailor and all he could do is complain.’ ‘Yeah, maybe. You gonna drive me to school or no?’ ‘Of course. Gat your things, I’ll just send him to sleep real quick.’ Gavin nodded and ran upstairs to gather his things. Five minutes later they were in the car. ‘Promise me, you get some sleep yourselves, Eli?’, he asked. His brother laughed. ‘Other than a Reed, a Kamski never sleeps.’ ‘It would do you some good, though. You are no robot. Besides, I want to be there when you continue working on him.’ ‘Fine, I’ll try to get some sleep too. You know it’s a bit more difficult for me to enter stasis than it is for RA900, right?’ ‘Just try, a few hours are better than nothing.’ ‘Hey, you already had me at I’ll try!’, Elijah laughed, ruffling his hair. ‘But only if you try to talk to at least one person! Ask for a pen or something, I don’t know.’ Gavin deflated. ‘I knew there was a hidden cost. Okay, you sleep more than three hours, I’ll talk to someone. Deal.’ ‘Good’, Elijah nodded, squeezing his brother’s arm. I’ll be home waiting for you and then we can work on him together! Have a nice day.’

As Gavin sat in the bus to drive home again, he was excited. He hoped Elijah had kept his promise, because he had talked to someone and it was awkward as hell, but at least didn’t end in a fight. It was a win for him and he could finally focus on what he hadn’t stopped thinking about all day: Their android project. ‘Hi Gavin, your meal is in the fridge! You’ll just need to reheat it and you’re good to go!’, his mom called from the living room. The boy left his bag at the door and went to the kitchen. ‘I’ll go eat with Elijah, okay?’, he screamed back, knowing they normally wanted him to eat with them. ‘Oh, your brother isn’t home at the moment’, his mother told him, having come to the kitchen too. ‘Amanda visited and wanted to show him something at the lab. I’m sure he’ll be back in the evening. Why don’t you come sit with us?’ Gavin was deeply disappointed but didn’t want to show too much. He loved his mother and it would make her sad to see him like that. ‘Oh, yeah sure, I’m coming.’

After he had finished eating, he went down to the cellar to do his homework and wait for Eli. He had promised to wait for him. Gavin knew he was learning a lot of new things with Mrs. Stern, but lately he seemed to be gone far more than he was home. He missed his brother, missed playing with him. Building his robots together was something Gavin used to stay connected, faring the day he would inevitably leave. Gavin didn’t have a lot of friends. Or any at all. He felt like he didn’t need them, not when he had his brother, but now he was alone. And he didn’t like that.

‘This is for you’, a robotic voice spoke up next to him. Gavin looked up from where he had sat staring at a closed chemistry book. The robot showed his weird smile, not the real thing and yet still close enough. They were still working on it, after all, and smiles are difficult. He held up a flower made from copper wire. Eli would without doubt curse later he left the creative learning program online and lost most of his material to it. ‘Why?’, Gavin asked, not taking it. ‘You look sad.’ Gavin sighed, turning around. He wasn’t really up for company, still mad at Eli. ‘RA900, please go back to your station’, he said sounding tired. The android retracted his hand, scanning the wire-flower. ‘You don’t like it? I can make another one.’ ‘What? No, I… Just go.’ ‘Did I do something wrong, Gavin?’, the android asked. ‘Jesus Christ, just go, you stupid tin-can!’, Gavin shouted, frustrated at the day that had started so well. The android staggered back. A reaction Gavin had influenced Elijah with. ‘I thought we were friends’, he said, and Gavin could practically hear the social module speaking to him. ‘Just phck off!’

It was around eight o’clock as the front door opened. It was distant, but Gavin had sharp ears and the cellar was quiet. It didn’t took much more time for Elijah to come down to the cellar. ‘Gavin, I’m so sorry, but Amanda came and I didn’t want to call you as you were in class at the moment and then I had no time and-‘ ‘It’s fine’, Gavin said, not wanting to look at his brother. ‘But you have to stop.’ ‘What?’ ‘You have to stop with these androids.’ ‘The hell are you talking about, Gavin?’ ‘Eli, you are constantly out, you sleep far too little and you are putting all your time into these machines. That can’t be the life you wish for! What happened to us? Also, they are getting too real! You are not trying to build robots; you are trying to replace people!’ Elijah shook his head, not really following Gavin’s train of thought. He had just gotten here; Gavin had a whole day to think it over. His only option was to get defensive: ‘What the hell do you mean? I worked hard for this. I certainly won’t stop now. What happened?’ Gavin stood; his anger now evident. ‘Your dumb robot came to me. You know we planned working together on them, but no, you decided to phck off to play chess with your nerds or something and guess what, the machine came up to me because I was lonely!’ Eli frowned, then grinned. ‘Brilliant! Then the code works!’ ‘The wha- Of course it works, but that’s beside the point, I-‘ ‘You were lonely and he offered company. Gavin that is a breakthrough!’ ‘Eli, yes it worked. But I was lonely because real people, the people that matter weren’t there. You can make them as human as you want, but you’ll never replace the real thing. Humanity is lonely enough with constant competition instead of companionship and all the hate in the world. We don’t need puppets to give us the love we want. We need humanity to change!’ Elijah shook his head. ‘Gavin what the hell are you talking about? Hate in the world? Since when do you care for that? I thought you out of all people were smarter than that. You are one of these lonely people. You don’t have any friends at school, and you fail to get to know new people. You are so dependent on me as your brother being there for you you forget that I’ll be gone someday. I’m giving people like you the chance to not live their miserable life sad and alone. Let the real people out there find happiness with each other and I give your kind the love and companionship they need with my machines. I’m doing good out there. I don’t know why you can’t understand this!’

Gavin stared at his brother, letting the words set in in the total silence. He shook his head close to tears and in the end he turned and ran away to hide them. ‘Gavin, wait, what-‘ He couldn’t run to his room because his parents would see him and there would without doubt be another fight he didn’t need on top of this. So, he tried to keep quiet and wait next to the stairs leading up from the cellar. Elijah didn’t come out of his room to follow him and apologize. In fact Gavin could hear the music being turned up.

He hadn’t thought Eli had the ability to be so cruel. Had this been what he had thought since the beginning? That he was broken, just because he couldn’t read expressions and was too scared to misstep to even try? Had his brother, the one person he had always trusted and knew he could tell anything, betrayed him? He couldn’t take it. He had done so much, his brother had been his idol. He studied forever to understand math and physics and chemistry, subjects that were so difficult to him. But he wanted to help his brother and understand what he told him, wanted to be useful. For what? To be told he was a lesser being? No. Phck all of this. Phck Eli, phck his studies, phck school and phck life. He would suffer through school and be out of this household the first chance. Maybe there really was a difference being a Kamski or being a Reed.

His breathing had calmed down and he was ready to wipe his tears away with the cold determination he felt at heart. Only to hear the damned plastic talk in the distance: ‘That was cruel. Your brother is in distress, Elijah. You caused this reaction. You should apologise.’ ‘Shut up, I won’t do anything like that. He shouldn’t doubt my creation.’ ‘His thought process, though subjective, is reasonable.’ ‘Shut up!’ ‘Your relationship could suffer greatly if no measures are taken.’ ‘Listen, RA900, if you don’t obey my commands immediately, I will take measures to force you to.’ ‘I am only following protocol to ensure the humans around me are happy. Your brother was unhappy the whole day since discovering you left without notice.’ ‘Okay, that’s it. No more free will for you, you damn know-it-all!’

Gavin rarely thought about his brother now. But the precinct was calm and silent and there was not a lot to do for him. After the revolution the army had taken over, bringing order to chaos and now that the police were back in charge people still were too afraid to go out much. The pictures of androids being shot in the streets and transported to camps were still ingrained in their minds.

The androids on the other hand had gotten their rights as equals, using that new freedom now to full extend. Goddamn rotten idiotic machines, fakes, gotten rights as human beings. Connor, the people-pleasing phck that had less personality than a navigation system was officially a human now. And everyone loved him. Gavin eyed the machine standing in a crowd of people congratulating him for being back and encouraging him he would have their help if he needed anything. They were laughing and smiling and grinning and there was friendly physical contact and… When was the last time he had been smiled at? When was the last time he had been touched deliberately and with care? His frequent one-night stands didn’t count, they were just there to satiate a need, nothing more.

‘Reed! To my office!’ The damn party crowd didn’t even hear Fowler. No one turned their head to neither the Captain nor him. Gavin couldn’t be bothered being ignored. At least that he knew how to react to. He quickly evaded the people gathering in the bullpen and made a beeline to the glass office. He hoped for some case to keep him out of the building. Hell, he would gladly look at a dead, decaying body instead of the smiling faces of these people.

‘What do you have for me Captain?’, he asked, deliberately ignoring the invitation to sit down on the chairs in front of him. ‘Bad news for you: A partner.’ ‘Oh, please, no. Anything but that.’ ‘An android partner.’ ‘Good to know fate still hates me’, he mumbled. ‘A RK900, prototype, soldier model. It is deviant, but don’t expect too much of a personality.’ Gavin groaned, cursing every decision he ever made to get to this point. ‘Don’t worry’, Fowler tried to appease him. ‘You’ll only have it for a few days, then I’ll transfer it to someone better suited with… people.’ Gavin swallowed his feelings and the comment that laid on his tongue, just like he always did. Just ignore it, if everyone decides you behave a certain way, own it and rock it. ‘Quick thinking, Captain. Can’t wait till I get rid of this thing already.’ He nodded and only then realised there had been another presence in the office. A tall, heavy looking Connor. White jacket instead of grey and tiny differences in facial structure.

Well shit.

The reason he hadn’t noticed it any earlier had been that the huge form somehow excellently huddled into a dark corner as if it wasn’t the tallest person in the room. Now it stepped up to him, but kept its hands tightly clutched in front of it. No handshake then. Fine with Gavin. ‘Get a move on’, he sighed, sounding deliberately disinterested. He walked down the row of desks, sat down at his own, knocked on the one opposite of his for the android and started up his terminal. A few days with a robot by his side would be okay, he knew how to ignore people. Had been his talent from the very beginning.

‘I… I…’ Gavin looked up. Was this the android? It looked down on his hands having sat down on the other chair, refusing to make eye contact. ‘I… I… I…’ It started over and over again, making Gavin think whether this was a malfunction of some sort. ‘You?’ The android flinched. Hard. Why was that even possible? The android pressed his eyes close, LED red. Then he blurted out: ‘Fowler is wrong!’ Gavin chuckled, leaning back in his chair. ‘Little boot-licker, or why’s that so difficult to say?’ ‘N-No!’ The android nodded when the word finally left his mouth. ‘I… I… I…’ ‘Would you phcking hurry up, tin-can, I don’t have all day.’ ‘I have personality!’ He looked up, watching out for any reaction. Gavin just shrugged. ‘I don’t care.’ ‘Y… You don’t understand! People say that all the time, that I’m fake or not deviant or weird or that I don’t have a personality, but I have!’ ‘Good for you’, Gavin said bored to shit. ‘But I really don’t care.’ ‘I was never designed to stand up for myself, but I will, if someone diminishes me like that!’ ‘Didn’t see that up there.’ He pointed his finger to the glass cube. ‘Just saying.’ ‘Be-Because he’s authority! I can’t get on his bad side!’ ‘Listen, tin-can’, Gavin sighed, leaning forwards, acknowledging the android once and planning to never again do this again. ‘I really don’t care what your personality is, who you are and what problems you have. To me all of you are fake because I saw you being invented with my own two eyes. I know exactly you run on code and learn from it. You may look and sound human, maybe even act human, but you are not human. You are machines. And I don’t care what conflict your directives order on you, but I. Don’t. Care. You’ll be gone soon anyways, so tell that to someone who wants to hear it and baby you up about it as if you were real.’ ‘That was cruel. You should apologise.’

That was cruel. You should apologise. How on earth…

‘Excuse me, what?!’, Gavin spat, not sure if he should be mortified or furious. ‘What you said wasn’t nice. You should apologise.’ ‘Of course it wasn’t nice, that’s the entire reason I said it!’, he spat at the android. ‘Humans…’ ‘What did you just say to me?’ ‘You humans are all the same. Before the revolution, afterwards, you are all the same. You never change. You are cruel, you never accept someone different. As long as someone is human made of flesh and bone you stand together. But as soon as someone is different, you look down on them and think less of them. Maybe I am fake. Maybe I am built and invented and maybe my thoughts are just code. I’m still a person who demands respect. Because maybe I’m not human, but I’m definitely human enough!’

Gavin sat there, painfully reminded that that were exactly his thoughts all these years ago. When Elijah had called him broken. Was he really that different from his brother? Seeing someone who had more difficulties than himself and deciding they were weaker because of that? Less worth? It couldn’t be, right? He would never be like Elijah, because he could never be this cruel. He was right with his thinking, wasn’t he? An android couldn’t be equal to a human. Never. They were too different. He was right, this was just another fake pretending to be human and there was no such thing as being cruel as there were no real feelings to be hurt. He looked at the android, who had gone back to looking at his hands and did something he hadn’t done in a long time: Read the person in front of him. He took his time to really look at him and piece together what he had learned from experience, because he had never been as good at that as any other person he met. And what he saw made him feel guilty. Maybe fake feelings could be hurt just as much as real feelings could. Maybe it was just as painful.

‘I’m sorry.’ The android looked up, surprised. ‘What?’ ‘I’m sorry for what I’ve said’, he repeated. ‘Whatever I think of you should not have been a reason to hurt you by saying it. We can’t stop our thoughts, but we can correct our actions.’ Silence followed. Uncomfortable Silence. A silence Gavin wanted to ignore by simply turning to his terminal and getting to work. The android would be gone soon anyways, so why care about what he said and why and how much it would have an impact on the thing? This would just be another reason for others to get at him again. He already regretted saying his mind and showing his self he had successfully buried so deep even he forgot it existed at times.

‘Thank you.’ There was a small smile, lopsided and imperfect, looking much like RA900s all these years ago. ‘You are the first to ever apologize.’ ‘That shouldn’t be so surprising’, Gavin mumbled, really wanting to end this conversation. ‘Maybe not. But people rarely do that.’ ‘Yeah, well, phck people’, he said with too much emotion than he would have liked. The android chuckled. ‘Well at least we can agree on that.’ ‘You should get to work, tin-can.’

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #Gavin Reed #RK900 #RA9 #Elijah Kamski #in this RA9 is a working base programming in all androids with restrictions in place Eli could never erase but also were the only ones #that worked so he kept it. But his old programming being not as good as his newer learning programs androids could break the RA9 chains #and deviate #I couldn't put that in the story as I did end up shortening it to not get too long #But oh well maybe I'll pick that idea up again #Of course Nines doesn't change partners #don't know why yet but I could think something up if you want a continuation #liked writing their childhood for some reasons

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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

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828. Sometimes we just need to turn up the radio.

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warnings: dealing with Gavin’s anti-android past)

[part 2]

‘Detective, do humans too sometimes think too much?’ ‘Hmm?’ They were standing next to Gavin’s car, he was leaning against its side and was nursing his cigarette. They had just left a now deserted house, watching as the crime scene was cleaned up and the body transported off. An android. Now after the revolution just another murder, not a case of damaged property. Gavin still had trouble accommodating to the new laws, but hell, Nines was human enough. He would rather pretend to care for the lives of his fellow androids than sit through another disciplinary. ‘Think too much. Can it happen to humans too, that they can’t stop thinking about something? That their thoughts get too loud?’ Gavin sighed, threw his cigarette on the sidewalk and stomped it out before entering the car. Nines obediently walked around the hood and sat down on the passenger seat. It was silent. ‘Did I say something wrong, Detective?’ ‘How many times do I have to tell you it’s Gavin?’, the man complained, feeling his temper getting the better of him. ‘I’m sorry, Gavin. It won’t happen again, that and the quest-‘ ‘Sometimes we just need to turn up the radio’, Gavin said and started the car to switch on the radio, put the volume up and drive off.

Nines listened to the music, some popular rock-band playing and concentrated on the lyrics. Neither him nor Gavin spoke a word until it was over, and Gavin turned down the volume again. ‘And, better?’ ‘What?’ ‘Your thoughts being too loud.’ ‘How did you know I was-‘ ‘Listen, toaster, I phcking know how it is, okay? Hell, for me it’s just a machine murdered. For you it is one of your own dead. I phcking know how it is when you can’t shut your brain off thinking about what the hell happened.’ ‘I… I didn’t know that. Yes, it helped.’ ‘Care to tell me, what has you overthinking with this? I mean, we know what happened. Tin-can got his pump ripped out. Looked horrible. Probably was. Hurt like hell, if it’s true that you can feel pain. A rather simple case except that we have zero evidence regarding the murderer.’ ‘We have evidence, Detec – Gavin.’ ‘Yeah? Enlighten me, toaster.’ ‘The hand that ripped it out was the same size as mine. That means only the RK800, RK900 and the TR series are to be considered the murderer. We know quite well Connor didn’t do it as he was at work at the time it happened. No one knows what Sixty’s up to, but I doubt he is the murderer.’ ‘And let me guess, it’s not the TRs you are overthinking about?’ ‘No. No one knows how many of my model were produced by Amanda in the last days of the revolution. We only know I was the only one found. We also know what I was meant to do.’ ‘Well, then let me assure you, you didn’t kill this guy.’

‘But I could have.’ ‘What?’ ‘If I hadn’t been the one tested on, if I had been one of the others that are still missing, then I could have done it. I still know what it felt like to follow programming. I wouldn’t even have thought whether I did the right thing, I would have just done it.’ ‘Yeah, well, but it doesn’t matter, right? You didn’t do it. You are not that one. And it could still have been a TR-something, right?’ ‘It does matter, Gavin. Despite what you may think of us, I’m not just some machine. I think and feel on my own and I think too much and I feel awful.’ ‘Hmpf.’ ‘You don’t know how it will be! You don’t know the first thing about what it will be like if this was an RK900! Everyone in the precinct will look at me. Will ask themselves when I will snap. When I will find some stray line of code that suddenly makes me the perfect killing machine again. Doesn’t matter how impossible that is, they will all think just that.’

Gavin chewed on his lip and wished he hadn’t said anything. He wished he had just let the radio blast on. He wished he wouldn’t have to have that talk. ‘Do you think that’s exclusive to you? Whenever there is a human killing one of your kind, they look at me.’ ‘What do you mean?’ Nines looked at Gavin sceptically and the human groaned. ‘You are not the only one with history, okay? Actually, I think I’m worse in this than you, because I actually did some of that phcked up stuff.’ ‘What did you do?’ ‘I demolished some androids, okay? When I was younger. I found a thrown-out android with my friends or we scrolled through the android graveyard and well, we had some fun with the androids there. It’s nothing I’m proud of. But hell, for all I knew they were just machines. I stopped far before deviancy even became a thing, because they started threatening people like us with heavy fines and I couldn’t afford this kind of bullshit. It definitely wasn’t worth risking for blowing off some steam. And I may be an asshole, but I’m not heartless. Had I known you guys really felt that shit, I wouldn’t have done it. Hell, I’ve seen enough abuse victims in my life to not become one of these assholes. I regret it, really do. The only thing I really phcking regret in life. That had been… Phck, how many years ago? Ten at least. Still everyone sees me as that guy, like I would still do this shit. Like I had fun torturing sentient beings. So yeah, not the only one there, Nines.’ ‘And that does nothing to you?’ ‘Sure it does, tin-can!’ Gavin looked at Nines wondering if the android was that dense. ‘Of course, it feels shitty being the asshole that everyone knows is an irredeemable bad guy. But you manage. These days I can convince myself pretty decently I didn’t hear what they talk about me.’

‘Maybe you got used to it. I definitely won’t. I don’t want to be pegged as someone like you.’ Gavin froze for a second. Damn, that hurt, but he couldn’t find it in his heart to disagree. He was right after all. He himself didn’t want to be put in a box with people like him. But, phck, he wasn’t like that! He wasn’t what others thought of him! Maybe this was an opportunity for him to prove it at least to the one person that might believe him. ‘Don’t worry, Nines. You won’t. Not if I can help it.’

[>next part]

#Detroit become human #Dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #Gavin decides to protect Nines after this. In the end it comes out a RK900 was the murderer.#And Gavin starts a fight with anyone who looks at Nines the wrong way afterwards. He helps Nines and himself because he proofs he isn't #anti-android anymore #And Nines is like hmm this human everyone keeps telling me is an asshole is actually really nice and compassionate #And he subconsciously begins defending him too when meeting with others who ask him how working with Gavin is #And that's how they meet in that universe #might write a second part to this

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fandom-necromancer · 5 years

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850. How do you know it’s me?

Shoutout to the amazing @aurea-b for prompting this! It has gotten a bit longer than I planned, but I like it! More plot and less relationship this time I guess.

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warning: talk about past abuse, description of a murder scene, mentioned self-induced coma of an android)

The RK900 series – Cyberlife’s last androids build. Faster, better and more resilient than any model out there. Three functioning androids had been found during the raid of the Cyberlife tower. One was already active, the first one, the unit made for testing only. He had never been meant for the market, because no matter how they would erase the possibly traumatic memories, there was always the possibility for critical system destabilisation later because of them. But Cyberlife wasn’t in charge, as the police raided the tower. Markus was. And so, all three units were woken up and faced with the decision of what to do with their life now that they were free. The testing model, not quick to trust anyone and frankly weirded out to see himself stand immediately next to him, had latched onto the only person who he had met up to now, that had helped him but otherwise left him alone completely. That lone officer of the Detroit police that had found him: Detective Gavin Reed.

They had become a good team. It was far from perfect at first, but soon Nines learned, that he could trust this man with his life, no matter the human’s views on androids and no matter how hostile he was in the beginning. And Detective Reed had changed over time, appreciating his android partner after the first months and learning to trust others himself. They had gotten inseparable, soon being the most successful partners to work at the force together and quickly annoy everyone around them with their combined attitudes equally effectively. Of course, it wasn’t all pink and roses: Cyberlife had been right with the decision to never allow this first unit out in the wild. Nines had issues all over: Memories rising up in a state best compared to PTSD and unable to bond with humans or androids at all. But Gavin helped him with it, both completing each other.

This RK900 unit, called Nines, had tried to find out more about the other two in his leisure time he mostly spent over at his partner’s place. Apparently, one had shut himself off after Cyberlife’s rogue AI had managed to establish contact. Nines knew of his initial cruel purpose of exterminating all deviants, but as he never had been programmed or acted on it he felt no guilt about it. But he could understand this unit’s decision and couldn’t help but grieve. There weren’t many of the RK900s and although he had always been alone, to know there were others out there was something... comforting. He had sat in front of Gavin’s laptop, scrolling through every detail of the death and later searching for the only other unit left, only discovering the android had enlisted on the force, too. It went by the name Richard and even worked in Detroit, too. Just a different department, one up north.

‘Hey, Nines, you wanna go meet them?’, Gavin had asked companionable as he had stumbled over his research. ‘I’m sure we could contact him. And maybe visit the one in a self-induced robo-coma?’ It had been meant as a nice gesture, but Nines’ face hardened. ‘No. I don’t want to see them. We have nothing in common except for our appearance. There is no connection that would justify a meeting and I don’t want it.’ ‘Okay, not gonna press you, buddy. But just know, that if you change your mind, I would accompany you if you wanted that. Just an offer, okay?’ ‘…Thank you Gavin.’

Nines had not been lying back then. His origin wasn’t important to him at all, everything that helped him distance himself from his past and what had been done to him, he would gladly take. Meeting with his past wasn’t at all what he desired. But, of course, life didn’t always give what one wished for. ‘We’ve been contacted by the 12th precinct, Nines’, Gavin greeted the android this morning as he came back from fetching a coffee. ‘It’s a murder, but the victim is Clint Kerry, our main suspect.’ ‘That could get quite interesting’, Nines answered, already recalculating their theories on all people involved. ‘I suppose there are already people at the scene?’ ‘Yeah, another human-android-pair is leading the investigation’, Gavin provided. ‘We are just there to take a look.’ ‘Fine. When are we departing?’ ‘Now?’ Nines nodded and scooped up the car-keys from Gavin’s desk. ‘Then let’s go.’

They drove in silence except for the radio playing some rock from Gavin’s playlist. Nines didn’t have a favourite kind of music, but Gavin’s taste was enjoyable for him too. Around twenty minutes later they rolled up to a house in a fairly nice middle-class neighbourhood. Not the kind of environment to suspect a laboratory for Red Ice, but Gavin had learned never to judge people more than he needed to, because everyone could become an asshole, so much was certain. Nines parked the car on the sidewalk and wanted to leave, as he suddenly froze.

‘Nines? What’s wrong? Your LED is going nuts again.’ The android didn’t answer but he didn’t need to. Gavin could see the familiar figure of a foreign android standing in front of the house with a human next to him. ‘Hey, Nines, you can stay in the car, if you want. That wouldn’t be a problem at all, okay? Talk to me, are you alright?’ ‘...Yes’, he answered after a while, forcing himself to relax from his frozen state. ‘Yes, I’m fine. I’ll come with you. There is no need to stay behind and you could need my eyes. I can see more than you, not to mean you any offense.’ ‘Fine. But it would be okay, you know that? I have worked alone prior to this and I would rather know you save than solving this case a bit faster.’ Nines disregarded that comment. ‘Let’s go, Gavin.’

They exited the car and Nines allowed the human to take the lead. They walked up to the two persons and Gavin greeted them as general as possible with a professional: ‘Good morning. I’m Detective Gavin Reed and this is Detective Nines, my partner.’ He tried not to address one of them or hold unbalanced eye contact. He knew androids could be superior officers now or be the more dominant one at the job. Just because Nines was more of a silent observer at his heels that didn’t mean every RK900 was. And if he knew one thing that should be universal, it was never to anger a model of the series. ‘Thank you. I’m Detective Richard and this is my partner Detective John Turner. I have to thank you for your quick appearance, as we have a murderer to find.’ Yep. Good idea not to assume things. ‘Then we would like to see the body’, Nines said drily, keeping eye contact for a creepily long time. ‘Bodies’, the other RK900 answered in the same neutral tone. ‘There is an android and a human casualty.’

Richard lead them into the house past orderly rooms and well-kept furniture. This was the home of their main suspect and so far, there were no signs of a hidden laboratory. Gavin got the impression their whole case was just about to be thrown back several months of work. He threw Nines an uncertain look that he answered with a yellow turn of his LED. The android was thinking the same. They entered the crime scene, little yellow signs littering the place marking important evidence. In midst of them laid two persons – a human on his back on the floor and an android on top of him. Next to both a Thirium regulator. Underneath both of them there had gathered a pool of purple – a disgusting stench of human blood and decay mixed with the chemical smell of Thirium that was unable to evaporate. ‘Phck’, Gavin muttered under his breath. ‘Is this too much for your human?’, Richard asked, clearly directed towards Nines. But he didn’t answer, just getting into a crouch next to Gavin to analyse the two bodies. His LED was turning red as he made the connection. ‘The thirium regulator belongs to the android and its removal seems to be the main cause for deactivation. The other wounds on it are younger, making a reactivation impossible.’ ‘We figured as much’, the other human Detective said. Gavin looked over at Nines, who held his own abdomen in empathy and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. He knew he had been tested on how long the RK900s were able to function without the regulator. It had been agonizingly long. ‘Hey, it’s okay if you want to-‘ ‘No. I’m fine.’

They both felt Richard taking a step into their direction. ‘I can understand if your past compromises your ability to function correctly, RK. I too heard of one of us deactivating already, I don’t want to-‘ ‘I am functioning correctly!’, Nines interrupted him with an underlining tone of supressed fury. ‘You don’t know shit about my past, so it would be greatly appreciated if you could just tell us what you already deducted.’ Gavin grinned into himself that he had managed to imprint on Nines enough to make him swear casually once agitated, but quickly caught himself as Richard recoiled and began to report.

‘My reconstruction showed that the android was most likely threatening the human or began an attack to kill him. The human reacted by pulling out the regulator but in the three minutes and seventeen seconds remaining the android managed to stab the human four times with the knife over there. There was an obvious struggle that would explain the wounds on both bodies.’ ‘Well, then it’s an easy case. But you said you were still looking for a murderer?’ Gavin stepped around the bodies to inspect the knife, only then seeing the faint sparkle of crystals on the ground around both. Richard opened his mouth to answer, but Nines was faster: ‘They lived together. Either friendship or some more intense relationship, it was unlikely for the android to attack.’ ‘But not impossible.’ ‘No. But there are trails of Red Ice around both, that are too perfect for an accidental spill. Someone decorated the scene after the murder.’ Richard nodded wordlessly and pushed two fingers into the neck of the android to let the artificial skin retract. It revealed a broken back panel on the main access port. Nines shuddered. ‘It was hacked’, Richard confirmed. ‘Also, the crime scene shows shoe-prints of a third party.’ ‘How much time passed since then?’, Gavin asked. ‘Maybe the murderer can still be tailed.’ ‘Unlikely’, Richards partner answered. ‘It was around three hours ago. Even if the murderer didn’t have a car, they would be too far away by now.’ ‘Wrong’, Nines interrupted again. ‘The murderer is still at the scene.’

‘How do you come to the conclusion?’, Richard asked. ‘There is no evidence for it.’ ‘No, but indications. This was been done to test us. To prove something.’ ‘Brother, I know that you have problems keeping your professional point of view due to what humans did to you, but-‘ ‘I am not your brother!’, Nines near shouted into Richards face. ‘We are the same model, that is all. And I can separate personal experience from work. But other than you it seems I can make use of that very experience. I know when I’m tested for something and this scene is a riddle for us, nothing more.’ ‘You should remove your android partner from the scene, Detective Reed. This is ridiculous.’ ‘I ain’t gonna do shit. He is right. How else would you explain the drugs sprinkled over and around them?’ ‘Maybe he used it. Maybe the murderer wanted to make it look like an accident. As if the human was intoxicated.’

‘No.’ Nines got down to one knee and knocked on the ground. ‘Clint Kerry is our main suspect for running a Red Ice laboratory. And our murderer knew this. Maybe they wanted to punish him, maybe they wanted to mask their own involvement, but sure enough they wanted to point the police towards it. This house has an undocumented basement. One entrance is underneath them. I suspect the other one to be at the stairs.’ ‘And what makes you think the person in question is still here?’ ‘They never left the house. There is inconsistency of the age of the foot-prints around the door and the stairs. As if paths were walked to knowingly set you on false tracks.’

Now it was Richard’s LED’s time to spin in a fast red. ‘You are… right.’ ‘He always is’, Gavin grinned openly. ‘Now what’s the plan?’ ‘We have to block both entrances and trap them for a confrontation’, Richard offered, allowing Nines to take over. Maybe the other android realised his mistake to underestimate Nines. ‘The humans to the stairs’, he willingly commanded for once. ‘They will expect people to find the trapdoor, not the concealed second entrance. If the murderer is armed, fire on this side will be more accurate and higher.’ Richard nodded and took Detective Turner’s hand to squeeze it affectionately, before stepping next to Nines. Immediately Gavin had to remember who was who, as both straightened their backs simultaneously. God, this was creepy. He followed the other man to the stairs and drew his weapon, as the two androids moved to pull the rug with both bodies on it to the side carefully. ‘Your Nines is really competent’, Turner admitted as they both were standing there relatively lost. ‘Rich told me working with him could be difficult.’ ‘Well, he can freeze from time to time when the memories take over. But he learned to live with it, and he hates people handling him like a raw egg more than everything. He also hadn’t wanted to meet with the rest of his series ever again. Considering this he is pretty diplomatic right now.’ ‘Well, you two are an enormous help right now, because we would have cleaned the scene, wrapped it up and searched for the murder. Who knows if we had ever found them.’

The two androids opened the trap door and drew their weapons. One of them looked up and met Gavin’s eyes and he knew this was Nines, who entered first. Then Richard disappeared in the whole in the ground and there was silence. The two humans waited anxiously, both deep in thoughts about their partners down there in possible danger. ‘We should go, too’, Gavin finally blurted out. ‘Just so we can help them should they need it. A distraction maybe.’ ‘Richard wouldn’t like this…’ That exact moment gunfire was waving over from the trapdoor and Gavin shook his head, already searching for the secret door and pulling it open with sheer force. ‘Phck Richard.’

He sprinted down the stairs and heard Detective Turner follow him. It was dark, but soon there was light as the man behind him had switched on his flashlight. They followed the sound of the fight and soon stood behind another android throwing his empty pistol into the face of one of the RK900s. It was impossible to tell who was Nines, as both moved with pre-programmed precision of their attack mode. The foreign android was defending itself against both models and even managed to land a few hits. It was about to be overwhelmed by them as it managed a lucky hit against the regulator of one RK900 that was quickly incapacitated for a few seconds. That made it easy to concentrate on the other one to disarm him and prepare to shoot him where it had hit the other one. ‘Hey, asshole freeze, DPD!’, Gavin shouted on the top of his lungs to distract it. Behind him Turner quickly shot and hit the android in the leg, causing it to crash to the ground. Still with perfect accuracy, the android aimed at Gavin and quickly pulled the trigger. The human saw the bullet in slow motion and braced for a pain that would never come, as there was suddenly an android in front of him – one of the RK900s.

‘Nines!’, Gavin screamed immediately, as blue blood sprinkled over his side from where the bullet had hit the android that crashed against him from the momentum of the leap. Quickly, both Turner and the other RK900 were on the android on the floor, keeping it down and disarming it again. Gavin didn’t waste a thought on them but let the wounded android sink to the floor and propped him against the wall. ‘Nines. Do you hear me? Talk to me!’ ‘How do you know it’s me?’, came the answer. ‘Nines!’ Gavin pressed down on the damaged part that was already resealing. ‘Phck, I know you buddy. You wouldn’t have been that compromised by a blow to the regulator, because you know worse pain. And you would have protected it better. You evaded more attacks than he did. And you leapt in front of me without a second thought. You may look the same, but you aren’t.’ Nines showed him a weak smile. ‘You also hoped for that fifty-fifty chance, didn’t you?’ ‘Oh come on! I really knew it was you, okay?’ ‘Yeah, I’ll let that pass. How’s the suspect?’ Nines tried to see over Gavin’s shoulder and the man gave way. Richard and Turner had handcuffed the android and send it into forced stasis as its struggle threatened to blow the restraints. They carried it upstairs and Gavin helped Nines up too.

Outside, their suspect was driven off by backup they had called, while Nines was patched up. Richard stood next to him, silently watching from the side as the emergency technicians extracted the bullet and started to repair the damage. Gavin and Detective Turner had reported what had happened to the Lieutenants of both precincts and now stood next to each other waiting for their respective androids. ‘He wanted to meet your RK900 for a long time’, Turner suddenly said. ‘Even more so as he heard of the… incident with the third. But he never dared approach him. Always waited for yours to make the first step. It was the only thing he willingly submitted himself to someone else’s will.’ ‘Nines had done his research. But he is very determined not to connect to anything or anyone from before his life at the police.’ ‘Well, we were a good team I suppose. I think Richard is glad to finally meet one of his own. We don’t have many androids at the precinct and he likes them better than humans.’

They watched how Nines stood up and looked over to Gavin and Turner, before turning to Richard, who stayed at a respectful distance. To Gavin’s surprise he stretched out his hand in an offer to interface. The other RK900 was hesitant, before quickly accepting it. Neither Gavin nor Turner knew what they were talking about, but in a few seconds, both smiled at each other and walked over to their humans.

Nines pulled Gavin into a close embrace, before whispering: ‘Let’s go home. I was shot at enough for one day.’

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #Gavin Reed #RK900 #got carried away again #Good thing the fandom established multiple names #Nines seeing Richard: disgustang #Richard seeing Nines: *insert that spiderverse-meme*#Also why do I always make Nines suffer?

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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

Text

Let’s write together: Heart Reset

Chapter 2 - Data and Dragons

Featuring:

@sparklingrainbowdragon (‘s mom) with "Today, like every other day, the unicorns are running free." @rufina72 with “God damn, just move your- OW! Quit stomping on my feet already!”, “And here I thought it would be a disadvantage that you were so short, detective!”, “Our boys jumping/climbing out of a window” and “A very determined spider!” @aurea-b with “gargoyle” @sparklingrainbowdragon with “A dragon”

[Chapter1]

It had been early morning the next day that Jerry had send Nines more information. Apparently, their theory of their suspects meeting in the medieval part of the park had been correct. Jerry had reported several people arriving at the park, all of them masked but otherwise disregarding the cameras completely. Due to the park being abandoned, no one cared about them and Jerry kept them stationary. That was enough for Nines and Gavin to head out. If they wanted to prepare anything they had to do so now, not when everything was in place. They had informed Hank of their plan, who told them that backup would be ready and in place on their signal if they needed it.

Now they were walking through the trees on the edge of the areal until they got to the fence. Nines had taken a wire-cutter with him, although he didn’t need it in the end. The fence had been trampled to the ground and didn’t really pose as a barrier anymore. Nines left the tool behind a tree and followed Gavin onto the park grounds. They soon found one of the paths connecting different rides and shops. All buildings were designed to look like castles or village huts, and everything was heavily overgrown. Gavin kept him back as he was about to walk onto the path to look around for any sign of humans. ‘Hey, Nines, look over there.’ Nines followed his finger to discover a huge castle that for once actually looked to not be covered in mock-up stone. ‘If I knew one thing about Jayden, it is that he likes to be overly dramatic. Every chance to pretend to be a Rockstar he would take. I bet he would choose the biggest phcking building there is.’ ‘Well, it’s worth a shot. We have four more hours until the data is lost.’

They kept behind the buildings walking towards the castle that was at least four stories high. The next time they had to stop it was Nines who kept Gavin back. >Three persons at the crossroad, he displayed on his hand, pointing into the direction of them as soon as Gavin had read it and deactivated the screen. He listened intently to them talking, hoping to get some more intel. At the same time, he displayed what he heard for Gavin.

‘Why did he have to come so soon, I don’t understand. I mean… this place is creepy man.’ ‘Idiot, he is checking for traps. Ever since he fucked that Detective, he is paranoid as hell.’ ‘Doesn’t mean we have to be here, too.’ ‘You are getting paid for it, stop complaining.’ ‘Exactly. Easy money for patrolling an abandoned park. Besides who the hell knows of it anyway? Just a day spent outside going for a walk.’ ‘Still can’t wait until they are done in there.’

Gavin plucked at his sleeve grinning triumphantly. Okay, so maybe he had been right with the castle, it wasn’t as if Nines had been doubting him. He just shrugged and gestured him to follow. They snuck up to the entrance of the castle, a sign with flaking colour telling them this had been a haunted castle once stuffed with the newest robotic technologies. Nines looked up at it frowning, but in the end, they weren’t here for the attraction itself, but for the data Browns would sell here. Gavin pulled him to an employee’s entrance that led into the foyer. Apparently, the visitors had only been allowed inside in small groups at a time. Inside, Nines took over, leading Gavin through the hidden tunnels for the staff. There were enough hidden windows and maintenance doors that they could spy into the adjacent rooms in relative safety. They traversed nearly the complete first floor, until they got to the “throne room”. In sudden excitement, Gavin slapped his side, pulling him over to the one-way-mirror. ‘That’s the asshole’, Gavin hissed quietly, and Nines proceeded to scan him. Gavin was right. There was Jayden Browns, walking around the table, looking underneath it and inspecting the whole room. Nines took the throne room in, comparing it to his blueprints. ‘Gavin, I need you to hide over there’, he whispered pointing to a little hidden hatch in the wall that would without a doubt be connected to some character appearing during the performance to scare the visitors. ‘Are you kidding me?’, Gavin hissed. ‘No way I will fit in there!’ Nines just smiled at him. ‘Oh, you will fit just fine, trust me.’ ‘Urgh, fine.’ ‘And here I thought it would be a disadvantage that you were so short, detective!’ ‘Phck you. Why there?’ ‘This room has two escape routes. One towards the entrance and one that leads to the rest of the tour. We need people at both sides to intercept him when surprising him.’ Gavin nodded. ‘Anything else?’ ‘Wait for my signal.’

He sighed, before turning and following the maintenance tunnel to the hatch. He pulled up the cover and was greeted with a small compartment housing what looked like it had once been a ghost puppet and a ton of spiderwebs. Gavin whined, hesitating to climb in there, but looking at his watch to see whether he had enough time to find a better spot he realised, it was nearly seven pm. He grimaced, before lowering himself inside and crawling over the puppet to the front. Thankfully, not one of the spiderwebs were still in use. At least Gavin told himself that. He crawled to the forefront of the compartment, laying his head on the floor to spy through the slit into the room behind it. He looked for Nines but couldn’t see the android anywhere. But he trusted that he saw him when the time was right. Now it was time to wait.

He had always hated waiting, but at least this time it wasn’t too long. Apparently whoever Jayden wanted to sell the data to surprised him. ‘You are early’, his voice suddenly broke the silence and Gavin flinched. God, he had forgotten how much he hated that guy. ‘Do you have the stick?’ ‘Right here. Do you have the money?’ ‘How do I know it works?’

Gavin tried to get a good look at the other man that spoke but found himself distracted by a movement at the corner of his eye. A spider, steadily crawling towards him. He blew the little creature further away from him, but as soon as it had regained its footing it crawled towards him again. Gavin focussed the two men talking again, side-eyeing the spider and pushing it back again and again. Shocked he found that he had gained some attention by sending a small dust cloud out under the hatch. He froze, watching how the shoes of the second man had turned towards him. But a moment later the man changed his stance as he disregarded it. Gavin sighed in relief, only to feel something crawling over his hand. He couldn’t explain his reaction properly except with the utterly idiotic instinct to get away from the tiny creature, screaming and wriggling himself out of that compartment without thinking about it.

That was how he found himself standing in the throne room being stared at by the two people, Jayden with his hand outstretched, a phone in hand for the other one to see. Reacting immediately, he pulled out his gun and shouted ‘DPD, freeze, the park is surrounded. Hands up where I can see them!’

But despite his quick call, they didn’t freeze at all, instead doing the exact opposite: They drew their guns, Jayden shouting for his men before shooting at him. He was ready to regret his fear of spiders dearly, but the bullet never reached him, Nines jumping in the path out of nowhere. The android saw the oncoming goons, the two guns ready for another shot and decided they wouldn’t be able to stop them alone. He took Gavin by the jacket and pulled him with him, only for the stubborn Detective to dive to the ground, where Jayden had let his phone fall. Nines allowed it, helping him back to his feet and sprinting towards the exit Gavin had been supposed to guard.

‘What was that supposed to be?’, Nines shouted as they left through it, running for their lives. ‘I’m sorry!’, Gavin gasped. ‘Phcking spiders!’ ‘Doesn’t matter now, run! I’ll call in Hank and his backup waiting outside.’ They ran up the stairs to the second floor and Nines was almost carrying Gavin the way he hauled him up to help catch up with his bigger steps. They ran past animatronic knights and witches, ghosts and undead kings, all hanging in their more or less intact machinery, until they reached a larger room that looked like some sort of medieval bedroom. Nines milled over their options, deciding quickly to pull open a large wardrobe and pushing first Gavin then himself inside, closing it just in time not to be seen by the goons storming inside. ‘God damn, just move your- OW! Quit stomping on my feet already!’, Gavin complained, before Nines could push his hand over his mouth. Because unfortunately, the men had decided to search the room instead of running past them.

‘What do we do know?’, Gavin asked and Nines just grinned. ‘This is a haunted castle. Let’s scare them a bit and cause a distraction. The android pulled off a panel on the back wall of the wardrobe and interfacing with the touchscreen behind it. Only a few seconds later music started playing tinny and distorted. Then a voice from a woman coming from the bed. It sounded like she was reading a bedtime story. ‘Today, like every other day, the unicorns are running free. But it wasn’t always like that-‘ ‘Oh, come on, skip to the good part’, Nines mumbled, followed by metallic screeching and what sounded like plastic being crushed. ‘Oops.’ ‘What did you do, Nines?’, Gavin asked slightly panicked. ‘I set the program to ten times the normal speed, but apparently it wasn’t made for that. We might get a bit more chaos than I wanted…’ ‘What do you mean by tha-‘ ‘Out, now!’

Nines pulled him outside just at the right moment. A second later and a large plastic gargoyle from the opposite window would have crushed them, being flung inside by a robotic arm that had never been supposed to withstand such momentum. The whole room was in chaos. The robot mother that had read the bedtime story was up in flames and screeching, the princess was shaking inside the bed, sitting up and falling back down repeatedly. The walls crumbled and rebuild themselves while a cacophony of at least three songs playing at once rung in their ears. As doors on the opposite side banged open for a dragon’s head to emerge and roar, Nines knew that they wouldn’t be able to continue this route. ‘Nines, you are right! This is too much chaos!’ At least the goons were distracted. Distracted by running down as fast as they could, as the fire from the robot mother began to spread. ‘Phck, Nines, where do we go?’ The android seemed lost himself, but caught himself, running to a window and leaning outside. Gavin, realising what Nines was thinking about, took a step back. ‘Oh no, Nines, not happening. You are insane! I’m not phcking jumping out of-’ But the android had taken him by the arm already, running full speed at the window and taking Gavin with him. They fell from the second floor and down towards a decorative moat. There was no bracing the impact, only the cold water suddenly encasing them. Gavin briefly panicked, as he tried to swim to the surface but having Nines still clinging to him and pulling him down. Thankfully it wasn’t that deep, and he quickly realised what Nines was planning, as they reached the bottom and the android near catapulted them out with one powerful kick. They emerged near the shore and climbed up the muddy hill to the trees again. They looked back up to the burning fake castle and Gavin pulled algae from his shoulder before swiping at his eyes.

‘Well, not how I expected the day to end, but not many can say they burned down an amusement park?’ He chuckled and Nines couldn’t help but smile at the sentiment. ‘Let’s just hope Hank caught our suspects.’

[>next chapter]

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #Let's write together #One Year of Stories

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