#ninegeddon

“Be careful of Gavin, if he gives you any shit feel free to deal with him or come get me, ok?”

It had already been a few months and yet Hank’s comment still confused the hell out of Nines. The lieutenant was so sure that Detective Reed would be a hassle, always keeping an eye on him and checking in on the RK, that Nines was almost convinced he was right and that Gavin was just biding his time. Little jabs and the occasional tincan being thrown around with minimal, if any, had him a little wary.

But he’s starting to question the humans’ sanity as he watches Gavin, not for the first time, come back to his desk with two cups of what he knows to be coffee and thirium. It was always a quiet little exchange from the man, the cup left on the RK’s desk before he took his own seat and got back to work. It always was a nice gesture, and he even heated it up to ward off the cold. Not that Nines would be bothered by it but still.

Today was a little diffrent, finding a little baggie sitting next to the cup as he picked it up. The contents were a bright blue and he didn’t need a scan to know it was some kinda of android candy.

“Detective-” Nines must object to things a lot, considering Gavin knew it was coming.

“Just... try it? Heard it was good.” He really was doing his best to try and hide the fact he was watching Nines behind his monitor.

He couldn’t really find a reason to say no, so the RK carefully opened the little package to find the closest approximation to toffee that an android was going to get. He did his best to ignore Reed as he took a bite, errors popping off with a yellow led but clearing quickly as he ate another.

“Thank you, detective.” His smile is half baked but he was trying his best with what he got. Thankfully Gavin understood and nodded, going back to work for real this time.

.

The days move on and things more or less stay the same, Gavin’s rough and a bit of a jackass but Nines thinks their partnership is going well. He really wished he could get the man to leave Connor be, but his predecessor seemed to have things under control. He didn’t get why the human always picked fights, it was a wonder he didn’t really try it with Nines other than the names and occasional arm punches. Maybe it was because the RK was bigger and could toss him.

Sometimes,though, jackass would go to hazard. Nines knew from records the man had a streak of getting himself in danger, but this was the first time he had been there to see it.

Charging into rooms was generally a bad idea even when there wasn’t anyone armed, but in the middle of a search it was worse and tended to lead to gunfire. Gavin might be good at his job but that doesn't mean he’s psychic, but thankfully for him Nines is able to make up for it with predictions and a stronger body. One that can take the bullet for the human, and you would think said human would be happy about not ending up in the hospital again but here he was, smacking Nines arm.

“You Idiot! Do you think?! Look I know I can get into messes but you are smarter than I am!” Judging from the red on the human’s face, he was livid.

And Nines just didn’t understand. “I did what I needed to do, which is keep you from getting hurt. You know well that I can replace parts.”

Whatever Gavin had to say got washed out by a fustrated yell, throwing his hands up and storming off. Nines himself took off to get repaired but when he got back he couldn’t get a word out of the human, cold shouldered for the whole week. But there was always warm thirium on his desk regardless.

.

Gavin eventually calmed down from the little indecent, and much to the android’s comfort started looking around more when they had to enter places. He might have been mad but Nines could tell he learned from that, something a few other officers were a little surprised at. At least it made later cases less of a mess.

However today Gavin was a lot more fidgety than normal, burning through his work like the world was going to end and while it should be pleasing the curiosity over it got to be a little distracting even for an android. In a way, Nines was kinda happy when the end of their shift came, not that he minded the man. But some quite time to sort files without the hyper human would be useful.

Except that plan was soon thrown out the window. Gavin’s eager saving of files and shutdown was rushed as he prepared to leave, almost the same as every other day, leaving Nines to take to a charging port. As he turned back to his work he was suddenly spun around to face said human.

“Come on, Nines. Save that shit and lets get out of here. We got a movie to go see.” His grin stretched from ear to ear, an eager child in a man’s body. 

“A movie? Me? Don’t you normally watch movies with Tina?” So many questions, which was normal for him but this was a whole new topic.

“Well yeah, but that’s fridays. That and she’s got her new girlfriend so they are off having a hell of a night tonight.” He couldn’t help his snickering at that.

The more he thought about it the more confused Nines got. Why would Gavin bring him to see a movie? He was a machine, at best the entertainment value would be lost on him, worse he would possibly ruin it. “Why me?” Seemed like a logical question.

Maybe that was the wrong question, seeing Gavin’s face fall a bit caused quite a number or errors. “Cause I Love you and wanna go watch a movie with you? Didn’t I make that clear? I’ve been trying to show you that since the day you walked in. You’ve put up with me when others ran, you care enough to try and keep me safe even when I don’t need it.” A bold faced lie, each word punctuated by him lightly poking the RK’s nose, but Nines wasn’t calling him out right now. “Phuck you got such a pretty face...”

A lot of things can happen in a matter of seconds for a android, many things. Like his hud playing back all of the little things Gavin did, seeing them in new light. And how his systems started to overheat from the revelation. Burn right through his systems and programming to light his face up in a newfound embarrassment and excitement.

He didn’t look back behind him as he interfaced with his computer, saving his work as the excited grin came back full force. “You... think i’m pretty?”

Hank didn’t take to going out to many places very well, Connor knew this very well, but he need to get the man working on his health more to make sure he would still be fit for his job. Last thing the RK needed was to be reassigned and have to relearn his partner all over again, that and Hank was just nicer to him. He had the suspicion that he might end up with Reed if something happened to Hank.

But the android found a way around this, one that also promised he wouldn’t get sick and could have access to things he needed. He couldn't get the man to a gym but he could get him to a mall, blessed and cursed as it was. The place was of a decent size and a lap was a good mile and a half so it wasn’t as hard to get him to go, after all it was it’s own distraction.

It worked for the most part, Hank going on about some of the things he saw and what they reminded him of, and Connor getting a bit of remote work done as they wandered around. It was nice really, and sometimes he would even stop to talk to people, old friends possibly.

They made dozens of laps around the mall over the course of a month, and not one time did Connor really pay any mind to what was in the windows. Well not unless Hank pointed them out. Like today when what was once an empty shop had finally finished being renovated.

“Been a while since I saw one of those.” Hank had stopped them for a break, taking in the colorful sign and the windows of soft fur. Judging from what info Connor could get the city hadn’t have a build a bear in a while, not since the last one was burned down. “They do some good work making those just right, but damn if they don’t cost a lot. Remember going to the old one a few times, once with Jeff for his niece’s birthday. I never heard such a scream before.” He couldn’t help his laugh at that memory.

The android watched him for a moment, the way his face split into a smile at the old memory, and made a note to look into that more if it would make him happy. More social contact would be good for the man.

But his thoughts were derailed when his scans of the store interior came up with something most intresting. Among all the stuff-able animals he saw a familiar fluffy face, a plush that looked just like sumo. That dog always seemed to give him little errors and this plush was no diffrent.

Except this one wouldn’t be waiting at home for them, a thought that got his metal brain glowing a nice yellow. He didn’t get a chance to linger long on it as Hank was already getting up and walking again.

“Ugh, Come on Con. Got another lap to go and I wanna get home for the game.” While the Rk was happy with the determination he for once was kind of disappointed.

He kept thinking about the plush as they made their rounds, having given up on focusing on his work over it. Hank had given him a place to say, a place to keep things, but he never did use it. He had no need to, at least he didn’t think so. But as they started on their last pass he thought about how the plush in the window would look at home. Would sumo be amused? Would it be as soft as Sumo?

The line of thoughts are what brings him to stop as they pass the window again, second guessing his choices as he stared at it. The android did have money from work, despite not being deviant at the time, and he didn’t have much need for other things so what could it hurt?

“Connor!” Said android was just now noticing that this was the third time Hank had called for him. “Con, I’d like to get home tonight. Why’d you stop?” He hadn’t walked back to Connor, so he couldn’t even tell what he was doing.

The RK knew he should really just move on, it was a kid’s toy for fucks sake! And he was a whole ass adult android who needed to get his human home. But the plush looked so soft and warm, so much like Sumo and a little part of him knew that he couldn’t keep the real one forever... He wanted the plush, and by RA9 he was going to have that plush.

Even as Hank headed back over to check on his android having a disco on his head Connor gave the most YK like tantrum at his programming, it’s mocking of him wanting something so ‘silly and unneeded.’ Balls to that, he was walking out with a dog plush if it was the last thing he did.

With a swift swing he put a hole though that pesky programming, not caring one bit as as fell away at his words. “Lieutenant. I want that.”

It took Hank a moment to even realise what Connor was on about, but when he saw it he was more amused than the RK had been expecting.

It wasn’t unknown to Nines that humans often had weird ticks, like how often times they talk inanimate objects as a way of talking to themselves, be it to assure themselves something is ok or for the of purpose understanding something. He recalls rubber duck debugging, something that he has caught the humans doing while working on him. He also recalls Gavin laughing about that, and the fact the duck looked like an android itself.

But up until now it had always made some kind of sense to him, had a rhyme or reason that had some benefit to the person. That was until the first night he had stayed at Gavin’s place, the detective reluctantly allowing the android to stay with him due to his lack of own personal home. Nines didn’t understand why he was so confused about that, the RK was only recently made after all and hadn’t had the time or funds. And he sure as hell wasn’t staying with Connor, as much as he liked the other RK.

It was a little surprising to find the man had cats, though perhaps it made a great deal of sense too what with how the man acted. It was nice to see the man be a big softer at least.

Nines had taken a seat on the couch as he waited for his partner to get done around the house so they could look over files away, a big orange fluff ball jumping up on his lap and making herself right at home on his lap before he could even lean back fully. Unlike their owner the cats were far more friendly, and the RK wondered if that was Gavin’s doing.

“Look like Cheesepuff likes you. Lucky, took me a good few weeks to get her to warm up to me.” He didn’t seem to off put, hell even happy the cat liked Nines. A show of progress.

“You seem to have taken great care of them, they seem like fine companions.” The RK could feel the vibrations from the loud and happy purring through his lap, how fascinating.

Taking a seat next to the android Gavin reached over to pet the fluffy orange head that laid on Nines’ hand. “Of course, they’re like family. Aren’t you?” There was a meow back at the man. “Yeah you are, your brother too.”

Nines stared at his human for a moment, trying to understand just what in the hell he was doing. Surly he wasn’t talking to the cat? No, he was a smart human, so the RK ignored that as they started going over their work. Well, at least tried. A neat little quirk that came with cats, one Nines was just now finding out, was it could be difficult to work with them around. He knows for a fact he is covered in so much hair now.

His audio processors buzz from how loud Gavin laughs as Cheese’s tail flips right into his mouth, the human pick the cat up as he swipes away popups of analysis reports from the fur. “Puff no, do not feed your big ass to my partner.”

And the cat mewed, purring like always. “No, he does not like that. He isn’t your brother.” Another mew. “I know that’s how you great people just not in the face.”

It occurred to Nines, as he sit here listening to Gavin ‘talk’ to his cat, that the man seemed to really think that the cat was talking back. He spoke like it was a full fledged conversation and the android knew for a fact that Gavin was human and couldn’t understand cat at all. He wasn’t sure about him understanding raccoons but definitely not cats.

“Detective, you are aware that the cat does not understand you, right?” He tried to reason, though something in him told him this was pointless.

“The fuck you talking about? Sure she does, why else would she meow back and know when to come to me?” He seemed almost offended by the comment alone. And was followed by a meow. “See! Even she’s upset!” And thus, the conversation between human and cat continued.

Reason dictated that humans were weird and to let it be so they could get back to work. Red coded programming told him to let it be as well. But the fact the man actually seemed to think the cat could understand him let alone the fact that he thought he could understand the cat baffled him to no end. It was so silly that he couldn’t take it, the last five minuets had been filled with their meowing and talking and for a fast brained android it felt like an hour!

He had to get this to stop, at least while he was there. He wanted to save the last few brain cells he had left, or whatever androids had. Smacking the coding away like a swarm of angry red flies he managed to free himself up to finally talk. “Gavin for the love of RA9 You can’t understand what the cat’s meows mean! You don’t understand cat! You are a human!” He pleaded to any deity that would listen to an android to help him.

Reasonably Gavin was shocked by the outburst, this was the first time Nines ever did anything like that. But before he could retort it seemed sphinx cat had managed to get somewhere he wasn’t suppose to be. Instead of disturbing Cheesepuff, he just hissed at the cat. It was a pretty believable one too, enough that the cat realised he did a no-no and bailed.

Hank had long since been aware that that dealing with humans, especially in the DPD, would come with many challenges and frustrations. Some were easier to handle, mostly being verbal but with no deviancy to speak of it was pointless, and some were three raccoons in a trench coat. Like that GV that was more than feral.

It goes without saying that after all of that the android had hoped that his partner wouldn’t be a problem, he was a lieutenant after all. And yet here he was, every other day having to drag Lt. Stern home to make him go to bed or go eat instead of work all the time. He had heard the phrase ‘like herding cats’ and he think this was the closest he’s gotten. He knows for a fact the Captain had tried sending him home many times, and he was baffled as to how it didn’t work.

This week seemed to be one of the worse ones, prompting Hank to just bring the man a healthy lunch instead of dragging him out of his seat. Honestly he thought it better anyway. When did he become a sitter?

“Lieutenant, you should eat. It won’t do you any good if you don’t.” His voice was followed by the thump of a plastic container on the human’s desk, having had the foresight to make make something in advanced.

For the moment, Connor ignored him, typing away at his terminal like the world didn’t exist and it wasn’t coming back until he finished. But his quite focus was broken by the sight of plastic fingers on his monitor.

“If you do not eat, I will be forced to disable this until you do.” Hank was not putting up with Connor’s shit. 

It earned him a glare, Connor possibly thinking he can intimidate Hank off to let him work as he tried to push the container back to the HK. “I can eat later, I got another five files to get through.”

He didn’t get it moved far before the androids bear paw of a hand stopped him, pushing it back in front of him. “Eat. Work is going nowhere. However it will be if inaccessible you don’t.”

The Lieutenant seemed to realise he wasn’t going to win this, sighing as he scooted back his seat and took the box to eat. Not before throwing another glare at Hank for it though. Whatever, the HK knew damn well he was helping.

.

The week of over working was coming to a head when, during a drive back to Connor’s home, the idiot human nearly fell asleep at the wheel. Hank might not have been so worried if the twink didn’t have a love of a old manual car, which made the whole thing a pump stopper. Thankfully they made it in one piece and the HK manages to get the man inside.

Then Connor went to try and work. Again. He didn’t manage to get very far before Hank all but snatched the tablet and laptop up, putting them up as high as he could. Which the human cursed loudly about because it was NOT fair that Hank was that tall and could do that.

“No more work. You need food and rest.” He could see Connor about to protest, cutting him off with a hard glare. “If you try I will be forced to disable them.”

“I know how to reboot a-”

“And I will have Collin help me do it.” The Android knew damn well what was on his human’s laptop, his brother getting it would be a disaster and the thought of that alone was enough to shut him up.

Hank didn’t care for being so hard on the man but it was a necessary evil.

He knew he had won when Connor sighed, flopping down on the couch. “Can I at least have my fire noodles for dinner?” 

“Lieutenant, you need something substantial. You can’t live off of instant noodles.” It wasn’t the first time he had this argument, Connor really did have a habit of eating poorly.

Unlike all other times, however, Connor didn’t glare at him. In fact he seemed thoughtful. It was odd, Hank had expected more of a fight from him about his favorite food but he got nothing. Perhaps he was getting it through his thick head.

And then he crawled up on the couch, perching over the chair arm as he leaned up as far as he could go. Close enough that Hank could see the glow of his yellow led reflect off them big brown deer eyes he was caught in. “Please, Hank? It’s my favorite and it makes me very happy and warm.”

Good god the man was the of begging puppy. Eyes he almost only ever saw glaring as wide as can be, the little pout just barely sticking out. The HK heard from Niles that Connor had a ‘wicked puppy face’ but this was a bit much. He almost felt bad, no scratch that he did feel bad. He looked so sad at the thought of not being able to have the spicy food, and the android couldn’t bring himself to look away. 

Logically, as dictated by his coding to keep the man healthy for work, he knew he should tell the human to shove it and make something good to eat. On the other hand as he looked through a haze of red he just couldn’t bring himself to make the human upset, not like this. 

Resolve breaking like the fickle coding he figured what could it hurt? Connor had been working so hard all week and deserved something nice. Shoulders slumping, his led spun back to blue. “Fine, but just for tonight. But you have to actually eat proper in the morning, got it?”

There was a lot of things things what were unknown to most of the DPD about the resident detective. Niles wasn’t all that forthcoming about his life, if anything, to the point people wondered if he had one at all. Even Gavin, his trusted android partner, hadn’t a single clue about what the man was like outside of the office. Not that he made it a point to snoop in the human’s life but you would think he would have seen something by now.

Gavin heard so many rumors and stories about the human it was ridiculous, some of which made his processors glitch from how stupid they were. Some even thought the human himself was an android, the GV would have known if that were true and promptly would have lost his mind. What a mess that would have been.

The android just couldn’t fathom that a human could be so shut off like that, there wasn’t a thing about his personal life anyone knew other than his brothers, who wouldn’t say anything. Niles might have been the youngest but he sure as hell wasn’t the weakest, Gavin had seen him toss Connor during Sparing enough times to know that.

He was thinking about that, actually, as he was bringing the man a cup of tea, having managed to pull the man from work for lunch when he heard his stomach growl. Gavin’ wasn’t sure how the man wasn’t dead between his sweets addiction and out right forgetting to eat half the time. 

Perhaps he should have been paying attention instead, as Niles turned to address him and ended up just smacking him and the tea from his hands. All over Niles.

“Shit...” The human was up from his seat in an instant, the hot drink staining half his dark colored sweater as it tried to stick to his skin. He didn’t get mad, only sighing. “Gavin, please put up my lunch for the moment when I go change.” He didn’t wait for a response, dejectedly trudging off to the locker room.

The android did as told, quickly putting things away before following after his human. Despite the lack of irritation he did feel the need to say something. He could tell just where Niles was as he heard the man talking with Connor, GV only knowing that because of the jokes and prodding he loved to pull on his little brother.

Whatever they were talking about didn’t matter however, not after Gavin let himself in the room. They didn’t pay him much mind at first as they talked, and quite damn frankly GV didn’t pay Connor any mind either. Not with the vast array of black and blue color that filled his vision.

Without the long sleeves the man normally wore Gavin could see the expanses of ink that decorated the detective like a museum wall. Both arms covered in geometric sleeve tattoos, looking much like it was inspired by androids. And Niles and noticed him now, but turning to face the android didn’t help a thing. Not when the GV got a full view of the chest tattoos, watercolor that with only two colors seemed like many more to the android.

Or maybe that was the red tinting of his hud as he started to over heat. Maybe it was that, especially considering all the warning popups that he did his best to shoo away.

He barely registered the hand waving in front of him, the artwork he worked with trying to get his attention. “Gavin. Gavin, what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you just standing there?” He could hear Connor laughing.

For the life of him the GV couldn’t respond, and he was mad as hell that he couldn’t see much past all of the red yelling at him to respond and get to work. He had to fix that now, he wanted at least one clear shot of this, kicking his way though the programming with enough force he swore he could feel that in real life.

He was grateful, really, as he managed to get a good few shots saved to his memory before he fell over, a mutter of ‘Sweet RA9′ leaving him as he hit the floor.

Seeing as Connor, with nowhere to go after work, started staying with Hank he made it a point to at least try to organize the man’s life a little bit if only to keep a fuse from exploding from the sheer mess everything was. Tracking schedule, forecasts and health, for the sake of efficiency and keeping his partner of course. Hank was the only human so far fully willing to keep working with him and he would rather like to keep that.

And for the most part it went well enough, the chill of spring fighting off heat when trying to get the man to work out some, the weather was pretty predictable too, the only issue that he ever had was getting the man up on time but he was getting there. Today he didn’t really have to fuss much, in fact as the RK was checking the weather he heard the lieutenant get up on his own.

“Good morning, Lieutenant.” His happy little chip was met with his hair getting fucked up, Hank’s playful ruffling making it stick out.

“Come on, no titles at home.” Not that Hank held out any hope of getting him to stop anytime soon.

“It’s nice to see you up, I’ve already made coffee.” Following after the human, Connor watched from the door as he went about his normal daily routine, he would go in but the last time he did he set his tie on fire. So he’s banned. “It would be best to bring a coat and umbrella today, it is going to be storming at noon.”

Unsurprisingly he only got a grunt of acknowledgment, Hank still half asleep and focused on making food kinda of took up all his brain power at the moment. From there it was off to work like every other day, reports to deal with and the usual bitching from the local raccoon, it was pretty quite until lunch when it started to rain.

Apparently rain didn’t stop Hank from wanting to get lunch, no sooner than the noise started was he picking up his coat and heading out. As per usual Connor followed the man out. It wasn’t much of a problem for him, being pretty much waterproof and unable to get sick, so he ignored the rain even if Hank wasn’t too pleased the seat got wet. That’s why there are towels behind the seat.

The RK didn’t make a comment on what the man got for lunch, seeing as they came to an agreement that dinner and breakfast would be more health focused, watching as Hank ran back to the car to keep from getting too wet in the downpour. It was quite outside of the rain and Hank moving around, parked in the lot while the android read over reports in his head to pass the time, idly watching the rain. It was the worst he’s ever personally seen.

The quiet was only disturbed by a low rumbled that only barely made it past the noise on the roof, and at first Connor thought it might have been a truck. Looking around, however, showed no such vehicle and it left a small error that he swiped away.

“You alright, Con?” Of course Hank would notice that.

“I’m fine, I just thought I heard something.”

It didn’t take long for the noise to happen again, the roaring louder than it was before and this time the RK couldn’t ignore it. Led spinning yellow he pulled his coin, starting to flick it as another rumble prompted more errors to fill his vision. He wasn’t sure why the thunder was causing this, it was just the weather after all. A noise couldn’t hurt him, well unless a human made it with that purpose but only nut jobs would do that.

The RK only stopped his fidgeting when he felt Hank shake his shoulder, nearly dropping his coin in the process. “Connor, seriously what the hell? You’re flickering like a broken traffic light, what’s wrong?”

What was wrong? The popups crowding his vision and erratic combat signals firing off took up so much of his possessing power, only spiking every time there was a roar from the storm. It was just thunder, and he was an advanced android.

“Connor.” The android almost didn’t hear Hank. “Are you scared of thunder?”

Scared? But a machine couldn’t be scared, wouldn’t it be a little silly of a android of his caliber to be scared of a noise? But the more Connor thought about it, the more it made sense.

Another crack of thunder, loud and shaking the car, pulled a yelp from the RK. Errors blared in warning as if he was damaged despite being fine, taking so much of his sight he couldn’t see anything but that. He couldn’t tell what was going on and he didn’t like that. He couldn’t dwell on it long though, as he felt himself pulled across the seat into a warm hug, back against the car door.

“Hey, heey it’s alright. I got ya.”

He wasn’t meant to be capable of fear, but here he was, about to reach critical stress levels from a storm. Connor flails, pushing past the errors and code to grab onto Hank, clinging to the man as another boom of thunder vibrates his chassis. The lack of programming didn’t stop the fear, but it made it easier to talk.

“Hank, I’m scared.” He didn’t like admiring that, keeping his voice low, but Hank heard him nonetheless.

Despite the abundance of deviants, especially after the party that was cyberlife, there were quite a few androids still milling around the city in their default state. Not really their fault considering the choir took to the streets and not in the buildings, the rooms they lingered in like time capsules to a much more mechanic past. Of course, androids were trying their best to get to all of them, but some were just stubborn about it so were left to deal with it at their own pace.

Like all the PC and PMs that still worked in the DPD. They weren't hurting anything so they were left to keep doing their work until a wild wire crawled up their tailpipes and they chose to leave. Some did, some didn’t, but that was ok.

Among the androids was also Sixty, fixed up to the best of their abilities to work along side the other androids as long as he minded his manners. Not that it was hard, if he tried anything Nines typically picked him up like a cat and just removed him from the room, so shenanigans with deviants was put to a halt.

The Rk had been as appalled as a bot could be seeing the larger Rk had gone deviant, though on the other Sixty could at least say he was better made in that regard. His curiosity, programmed in he swears, brought him to question Nines about how in the world that had even happened.

“Have you ever seen a human eat a lemon? They are not supposed to do that. It’s not right, it’s against nature. I’m an android and know nature doesn't work like that.” The RK actually locked up thinking about it, clearly distressed at the concept.

Sixty never did get a chance to ask which human did that, but he thought it was a silly reason to deviate. It was just a fruit and humans were by default weird so how shocking could it be? Well it wasn’t his problem so he didn’t dwell on it, going about his work as he bounced between partners for the day.

Today he was stuck with Detective Reed, not that it was all that bad seeing as they strangely got along. Maybe it was because of the whole ‘ass kicked by Connor’ thing, neither did get along with him well. It was a easy day, not much to work on other than writing and discussions, some of which came a little harder with the constant eyeballing they got from the other two RKs. What was their deal?

With noon came lunch, Sixty remaining at his desk as he liked to do, not really concerning himself with the second daily grind of just humans trying to stay alive. What a pain in the ass that must be. But Gavin was a hard worker, so it wasn’t surprising that he got a text in his hud from the man asking for his work tablet, he rivaled the RK in terms of being a workaholic sometimes. A formidable opponent at least.

The only downside was the man had a problem with placing his things in the weirdest of places, something the android had complained about once before. But Gavin’s a raccoon that will put things where he pleases, so the RK resigns to shuffling through his things until he finds the closest thing a human would get to a HUD. 

Making his way to the breakroom he’s surprised the first thing he sees is Nines standing near the entrance, led spinning yellow and offended. The other RK doesn't even look at him or the other androids meandering around him, never taking his eyes off Gavin. Weird but ok, nothing worth worrying about, just a deviancy he guessed. He could ask later, for now he headed over to hand over the tablet.

“Detective, it would be much easier to find what you want if you kept things in a decent spot.” Judging by what was on the table, Sixty could only guess Gavin was almost done with lunch, so why not wait? 

“I put shit where I know where it is, deal with it.” He didn’t really leave much room for argument as he snatched the tablet up.

In hindsight Sixty should have gone back to his desk instead of waiting for Gavin, but he didn’t because as much as his prediction software liked to mimic it he was in fact not a psychic. He really wished he was though.

Sixty couldn’t hope to ignore the loud crunch from the human as he took a bite out of a pickle, bunching on it like it was candy. He supposed to some it might be, it was enough to make his processors stutter. What really got the led spinning gold was watching him bring the jar up like a glass.

“Detective, That isn’t your drink, you have the wrong glass.” The RK swore he heard Nines make a distressed noise at this.

Gavin, the cheeky bastard he is, only keep his eyes on Sixty as he continued on and tipped the jar back to drink the contents. The Android couldn’t do more than watch as he downed more and more of the vile liquid, led flickering quickly to red along with two PCs and Nines. The feral man had a whole audience to the shit show that was his diet.

Sixty wasn’t sure what was going on with the other androids and quite frankly with his glitching systems he didn’t care at the moment. How on earth could a man drink something so sour? The smell alone set off his senors just standing near it, let along this. There was a small moment where he debated on making sure no more pickles found their way into the office at all.

It was the clang of the jar hitting the table and the smug grin on Gavin’s face that snapped Sixty out of it, programming glitching so hard the RK couldn’t do more than delete the whole thing. He could be mad later that he deviated over pickles, right now he could only bear the overwhelming disgust of the human in front of him.

“Detective. That was, without a doubt, one of the most revolting thing I have ever seen. And I have to lick things.” Judging from the other three androids in the room, he guessed he wasn’t the only one.

“I told you it...Just isn’t natural...” Nines whole face was scrunched at the sight, used to the man but still disturbed. It was almost funny seeing the other two PCs trying to hide behind him. Wasn’t hard to tell Sixty wasn’t the only one to deviate.

Well thank you there :D I’m glad you like it. I could use way more sleep. And ya know, I don’t know if we did so I think it would be a nice time to rectify it.

Humans had a knack for being weird. No matter how many androids one would ask there was always some kind of weird story, be it from things they were personally involved with or just saw passively on the street, there were plenty of laughs and grievances to be had.

Gavin heard quite a few of his own around the office when others thought he wasn’t listening, even Hank seen a few in his short time with the Lieutenant.

“I don’t know why it keeps happening, at least every other week he’s shaking me from stasis over the doorbell going off. We don’t even have a doorbell??? I might not need stasis but I would like to not be woken up with my combat protocols going off because he’s panicking over a nonexistent doorbell.” The HK sounded quite fustrated with the whole thing, led spinning yellow as he watched said disaster of a human doze off at his desk.

The GV couldn’t say he was really interested in their home life, but it wasn’t like he had anything to do at the moment to warrant slipping away. “Sounds like he needs more therapy and less coffee.” He wondered why he ended up being the one other androids vented around.

Apparently that was the right thing to say seeing as the other android relaxed and smiled. “Good idea, I will see what I can do with him.”

Gavin at times was as pleased that he got the more sensible brother to work with, aside from a weird sugar addiction the man had, nothing really interested happened with him outside of work. Not that the android knew much about the man outside of work. He had work to do.

However lately things had been a little off, the rise of android related cases bearing more stress than normal and everyone a little more grouchy. At least the humans. Gavin was doing his best to help Niles but strangely, for such a hard working person, he had found the man kept disappearing. It wasn’t unusual that he left for his breaks, but it was odd that he didn’t get back on time and this fact alone was bugging the GV.

They didn’t have time for that kind of thing, even if he was an android Gavin wasn’t exactly the newest model. He tried to ignore it, but  after two weeks when it started happening even more he had had enough. Thankfully it was easy for him to track Niles’ phone, having connected to it many times. But to be lead to the break room, only to find him not there? That was concerning.

After a bit of searching Gavin was left speechless. He found his human alright, hid away in the cabinet asleep. Now, the android was annoyed as a machine could be, but more than anything just stumped and left spinning yellow at the sure ridiculousness that such a large man managed to wedge himself in there. Apparently both brothers were weird.

After shaking his shoulder a few times, and a few saved pictures, he managed to wake the human back up. Red marks showed brightly on the right side of his face from where he had pressed it, looking dazed as he finally came to.

“Hu? Fuckin’... Go away, i’m on break.”  First time the GV had ever really hear the man curse, was kinda funny.

“Your break ended an hour ago, detective. Get up so we can get the reports done for the day. And perhaps sleep at home.” Whatever surprise there had been had worn off, and Gavin wasted no time in grabbing the man by the arm to haul him out.

Niles only vaguely helped in getting himself out, still half asleep and as coordinated as a baby deer. “Fine, fine. I’m coming, just let go.”

Eager to get back to work Gavin finally let go when he knew Niles was good to go himself. Still, he was left with a few errors he couldn’t quite shake off after finding his partner like that, and he wondered if that was where he had been going all this time. He knew the human was athletic and flexible but that was just silly.

And really that should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. No, the GV found himself having to hunt down the human more and more during work only to find him napping. First the cabinet, legs curled up almost to his ears. Then the evidence room behind the desk, drooling a little and twitching a bit in his sleep. That one bothered Gavin less because at least he was in a normal position. He didn’t know why he saved a photo of that.

He had a major argument the day he found the human asleep in his car, which wouldn’t be so bad if someone wasn’t trying to get into it after him while he slept. The android wondered how he slept through that, thinking he might have to check the locks at his home just in case.

It was clear to the GV that the man wasn’t sleeping enough at night, suspecting it was largely because of him overworking but wouldn’t rule out other home issues. If he didn’t get the human to sleep proper they were going to be in for a bad time. The last thing they needed was him slipping up in a serious situation.

Niles hadn’t napped today, but Gavin knew it wouldn’t be long before he tried, the slightly glazed look in his eyes being a tell. But he couldn’t just ask the man to go home, there was no way he would listen. So he waited. Waited until he inevitably crept off to find a place to nap. It didn’t take too long before the android found him in another random spot, snoozing like he belonged there. 

“Could you at least sleep on something meant for comfort? A couch or carpet?” He muttered, annoyed as he picked up the much longer man into his arms.

He almost got out of the building without waking the man, but apparently he wasn’t going to be that lucky, seeing as said human had just woken up with a slue of slurred curses.

“Damn android, put me down.” Niles’ squirming wasn’t all that helpful, considering he was half out of it and Gavin was an android, but he did give a valiant effort. 

“Only if you promise to go home, or should I tell the Captain about your habit?”

That seemed to work, the detective staring at him wide eyed before he realised that the GV wasn’t bluffing. “Whatever, just let go.”

It was all Gavin needed, letting him down gently and following him to his car, stealing the keys so they didn’t end up in a fiery pile of metal. And for the most part the drive was quiet, the noise of the car a soft drone that only barely covered up a soft noise starting up. Glancing over at a stoplight he found Niles was out again, slumped over in his seat and even snoring softly. Gavin supposed that this was why parents drove their babies at times, to help them get to sleep, and judging by his partner it sure as hell worked wonders.

He got a few error popups before he realised the light was green, thankful the streets were empty so no one would honk as he continued on his way Niles’ home. From there it was just a matter of taking him in, a much easier task than last time seeing as the man was out cold this round and didn’t wake for a moment. Small blessings.

Gavin couldn’t really bring himself to go into his partners room, even his programming flagging it as a bad idea. Invasion of privacy and all. So he took to the next closest place, the thankfully clear couch. And look! Pillows! It took a few moments but he finally managed to lay the human down and even get the pillow under him, glad the room was warm enough that he didn’t need a cover.

With his task done he knew he should leave, a blaring prompt confirming this, but he didn’t move. Couldn’t really, caught up in examining Niles. The way he always seemed to drool when he was really out of it, the way he hugged the pillow and how his cheek squished just right, Gavin couldn’t help but stare. A face that normally had such a stern look, hard glares, now laid here soft as can be. No invitation, no stress. Gavin believed the word he was looking for was-

There was that programming again, setting up like a red brick wall telling him to leave. Tough luck, however, seeing as the android had picked up a few habits from his partner. Namely being a stubborn ass. 

A few deleted letters here, some moved code there, and Gavin had all but swept the broken coding under the digital rug. He guessed Hank had been onto something with this whole deviant business, felt pretty good to be able to just sit down beside his sleeping human and watch him for a while. Sure it was a little weird but when would he get the chance again? Maybe he could even get in a little stasis of his own too.