#the other android: Oh you are so sweet BIG fan I wanna know everything OTP for life

[fandom-necromancer]

129. Just talk to me please

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warnings: blood mentioned)

'Good morning, RK!' 'That is a possibly incorrect statement, Hank. Neither you nor I know how this morning will develop and whether the subjective judgement would conclude it as good.' 'Jeez, Nines can't you just take it? Just for once?' 'No.' Gavin braced himself for the android's arrival. 'Morning, tin-can', he mumbled to avoid listening to the same shit Hank had to put up with. But as always, he just got the silent treatment.

There was no denying the RK900 wasn't good with conversation. No one knew whether it was deliberately or just how the android had been programmed, but whenever he talked to someone it was harsh, degrading and with no account taken for other's feelings. And, well, Gavin could live with that. He rarely cared for such things himself when it meant getting the job done. But no, the stupid thing didn't talk to him. Not at all. In their first few weeks, yes. There had been no difference in his behaviour towards him and the others. But now... Gavin couldn't even find a reason for the sudden change. Yeah, he hadn't played nice, he had taken it for a challenge and had answered with equal disregard to social etiquette. Quite immediately the android had stopped talking. Although Gavin had to admit, their talks had always been a welcome challenge to him. Finally, someone who was willing to address the things as they were. There had been times he had wished for the machine to be more careful, times where what he said really hurt. But he enjoyed their conversations more than not – something that couldn’t be easily said of his other co-workers. Being ignored was somehow worse than anything he had to put up with yet.

‘Hey, uhm…good news: we got our warrant.’ He looked over to his partner, searching for any kind of reaction. As usual: nothing. ‘Err, do you want to go now or d-‘ RK900 was already standing and looking at him expectantly. The subtle hint he was already waiting for a longer time than he would have liked to. Gavin hurried to get up, too, fishing the warrant from his top drawer and power-walked after the android. A few minutes later they sat in the car, Gavin was driving, and the silent robot was next to him motionless. Could as well be in standby or something. ‘So, uhm… How was your weekend?’ God, that was awkward. Couldn’t he have askes something less… trivial? As there was no answer, he quickly tried to cover up what felt like a huge misstep to him. ‘Heh, bet something between around average and mildly pleasing? Yeah, I know, why have I even asked? Mine was good, I guess. Spent a lot of time with my cats. But I guess that doesn’t interest you either…’ He took a short glance into the passenger window, seeing the reflection of the LED turn from yellow to red. Yeah, shit, he better stayed quiet. He didn’t know what he had done to have pissed off the android in mere weeks, but he would have to cut it down if he wanted to come out of this alive. He had seen the things during the revolution. He had seen Nines a few times fighting criminals. The guy was a viscous fighter. And even if Gavin was well trained and capable himself, he knew he wouldn’t be a match for the RK900.

He pulled up in front of the house. ‘Okay, we are there. Should I go? Or do you want to-‘ Nines was already out of the door and Gavin grumbled before he hurried out too: ‘Guess you want to.’ But as he walked to the front porch, Nines stood patiently next to the door. Gavin groaned again and rang the doorbell. ‘Really man, this game you playing? Absolutely no fun. We really have to talk about this. As we started this you quickly became one of the more pleasant partners I had. Might have even said I liked you. But this? I can’t work like this.’ Gavin had talked while they waited, but by now someone would have opened already. ‘Oh, for phck’s sake.’ He rang again and added, this time louder: ‘Detroit police, open up!’

No reaction. Slowly Gavin was fed up being ignored again and again and again. He felt his patience running out and someone would have to pay the price then. He was about to ring again as the damn toaster shoved him to the side unceremoniously. ‘Hey, dipshit, what the hell?’ The android pressed his hand against the lock, skin retracted. Moments later the door swung open. ‘Good to know. I’ll phcking invest in a mechanical one, just you know it!’ Before he could announce to go in there, Nines slipped in in front of him, weapon drawn.

Gavin sighed and followed, announcing their presence: ‘Detroit police, come out, we just want to talk!’ They walked down the hallway. The house was clean and well-kept. No sign of a sudden departure. Maybe their suspect was just at work? Well, either way it would go well. The person they searched for was an elderly man, near retirement and according to medical data not the fittest. Gavin didn’t expect much resistance. He already dropped his weapon. It was evident no one was home, as the man would have at least tried to stop them.

Out of nowhere, Nines spun around and shoved Gavin in the chest hard enough to let him fall backwards to the ground. The moment Gavin wanted to exclaim some profanities the words got stuck in his throat. The gunshot was near simultaneously with Nines’ reaction, Gavin only saw the fracturing hull under the force and the splatter of blue blood. Then a shot from the android’s own weapon and someone falling to the ground behind him. Reflexively Gavin spun around on the ground, throwing himself at the man and grabbing the pistol to avoid more damage. Nines had targeted the man’s leg, rendering him unable to walk. After a bit of a struggle, Gavin had pried the gun out of his fingers and turned him around to handcuff the idiot. Occupied, he just asked into the space in front of him: ‘Are you okay, toaster?’ No answer. Phck this guy’s silence, really! He turned around to make voice of his anger, as he saw the android leaned against a wall, Thirium flowing freely from a wound near the pump. ‘Phck! Nines, you alright? Just… talk to me please! Only this one time!’ The android fixed him with these grey eyes and actually opened his mouth: ‘Your incompetence will get me killed, detective.’ Then the machine shut down.

‘Phck!’ Gavin was caught between their suspect that was bleeding out and his partner that kind of did the same. ‘Phck this!’ He jumped over to Nines, snatched the handcuffs from his belt and used them to chain the suspect to the banister. Then he pulled out his phone while trying to lift the android. ‘Connor! It’s me Gavin. Shut up! I need you here, as soon as possible, best with an ambulance. I handcuffed our suspect to the stairs. I will leave now, your brother got shot. Yeah, I phcking know, Connor! I’ll still get him repaired, phck protocol. He shut down; this can’t be good. No, don’t give me a lecture about emergency stasis. Not. Helping. Now get your ass over here!’

He slammed the red button and pushed the phone back in his pocket. He would need two hands to get the android back into the car. ‘Hang on, Nines. I’ll get you fixed!’

 It was weird sitting in this waiting-room, worrying about a robot getting repaired. Well, honestly, that wasn’t the weird part. Of course, he was worried about his partner. He still liked him, he would worry about any co-worker hurt on the job, even if he wouldn’t show it. No, it was weird sitting here. Amongst all these weird android-lovers. Seeing people worry that much and immediately starting to smile when their toy came back, hugging, sometimes kissing. He felt out of place.

‘God, what takes them so long?’, he muttered to himself, resting his face in his hands. ‘Don’t worry, they do good work. You’ll get them back in no time.’ Gavin looked up into the friendly face of an android, perplex. ‘A friend of yours?’ ‘Partner’, Gavin answered without thinking, not prepared to have a conversation with a stranger. ‘Oh, how lovely! I am happy to see human-android relationships rising!’ ‘No, it’s not-‘ Gavin only now realised not everyone’s first association would be police partners. But the other was already continuing so enthusiastically, Gavin just fell silent and listened. Hell, he couldn’t care less for some stranger’s image of him. ‘I couldn’t do it, to be honest. You humans lack the ability to interface, sorry if I’m so bold. That would be too much of a sacrifice for me, but I knew a few androids who live quite a happy life with their humans.’ ‘Yeah’, Gavin nodded, glancing to the door and hoping more than ever the damn RK900 would finally step out. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude!’ God, this android was already getting on his nerves. ‘Some of my best friends are humans! You have a few quirks I think are quite interesting! Like eating or sleeping.’ Yeah, quirks. It’s called staying alive, idiot. Come on Nines please, rescue me! He couldn’t start a phcking argument with this toaster here. ‘I guess.’ ‘Okay, sorry, I have to ask but how did you two met?’ The guy had now fully turned towards him and was in full gossip mode. Gavin smiled. Oh, he would simply tell the truth, that would shut him up. ‘Hmm, just work. Well, I kinda tried to kill him’, he grinned what hit the other unprepared. ‘My partner is a RK900 unit, you see? The deviant hunter.’ He smiled as the android recoiled and gaped at him. ‘We met on the job, he tried to kill the friend of a co-worker, you might know him? Connor? A RK800? Anyways, I shot him, Connor deactivated him and made him deviate.’ The android’s eyes widened even more. Gavin knew Connor was quite famous, being the deviant hunter himself before he switched sides. It was a shitty card to play, but the idiot finally shut up for once. ‘He started working at the police force soon afterwards.’ ‘That’s… sweet’, the android answered swallowing and scooted fully back onto his seat.

At the same moment, Nines walked out of the door, the bloodied jacket the only evidence of his previous damage. Gavin was at his feet immediately, happy to be spared to spend another second near the android. ‘Nines! Are you alright?’ ‘I’m working perfectly again. Why is this android staring at me?’ Gavin looked back to the seated guy, who quickly averted his eyes. Nines hadn’t exactly been quiet addressing him. ‘Don’t worry, we had a lovely chat’, Gavin answered with a devilish grin. ‘I see. Your effort to get me repaired are noted’, the tin-can stated, looking at another recently reunited pair, then swiftly pulling Gavin into a hug. It was now the human’s turn to be taken off guard. ‘Hey Nines, did they exchange you for another RK? Something wrong?’ ‘We need to talk.’ ‘Thank phck, because I want to know what I did to deserve the silent treatment!’

They went out, Gavin again following the plastic to the car. It was inside that Nines spoke again: ‘This unit has a defect no one can repair.’ ‘Hs to be serious when you start talking in third person.’ ‘I have been issued without a social program.’ ‘Okay?’ ‘I don’t know how to properly talk to persons. But I realised I often hurt people with my words. I just can’t figure out why.’ ‘Okay, that explains a lot. But why didn’t you speak with me? You spoke with others.’ ‘I don’t care to hurt others. Connor understands, the rest will eventually. But I didn’t want to hurt you. I like you. I was informed friends are important.’ ‘Wow okay, but you not speaking to me hurt more than your words before, if you so will.’ ‘That wasn’t my intention.’ ‘Yeah and now it makes sense. Why didn’t you just tell me before?’ ‘It’s a defect.’ ‘So? You said we are friends. I won’t judge you. I’m pretty bad with people too.’ ‘I know. Your social capabilities are below average.’ ‘Thanks. I guess.’ ‘So you would prefer me hurting you?’ ‘If that means we speak again, yes. I understand why now. So, I don’t really think I would be mad for long. Also, how will you learn, if you don’t try with someone?’

There was silence for a while, then Nines spoke up again: ‘Gavin, I don’t think I will learn much from you.’ ‘True, asshole. But I know how to be nice, I just choose not to, okay? I’m definitely not leading by example, but I could correct you.’ ‘That could help. But I doubt your judgement still.’ ‘Okay, toaster, first of all: Phck you. Second of all: that was rude. See? I can help you!’ ‘We’ll see. I agree to your suggestion.’ ‘You do?’ ‘Of course. We are partners.’