#robbyxwhitaker

Okay so hear me out. -Duke absolutely knows he's got a big chance of dying and also that there's an even bigger chance of Robby straight up killing himself if he does. He managed to get through to him once, somehow, maybe, but seeing Robby with his brittle grasp on recovery guide him at his appointments, he's not sure anything will get through to him if he dies.

So he pulls some strings with some contacts and a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-biker-gang sets him up with this sad, broken little hybrid rescue. He's got the saddest big blue eyes you've ever seen, the fluffiest soft ears and tails, and sometimes a glimmer of surprising sass when you least expect it. Robby loves a project, and from what he saw at the hospital, the guy needs to feel needed.

"Robby man, I will get the surgery but you need to promise you'll take care of something for me, whether I make it or not."

-Robby says yes, because of course he does. He's thinking maybe it's a bike or his house or Duke's garage, but he's got all that under control. No, Duke cheerfully drops off a sad-eyed hybrid boy with a sob story about how if Duke didn't take him, he'd end up in a fighting ring again and the kid deserved a break but now with the surgery he wouldn't be able to take care of poor Dennis.

-Hybrids are usually just as smart as humans, they just don't get treated as such. Dennis had been a great help on the farm, even if his brothers treated him more like a pet than a little brother. But then he'd started to get sassy. And have opinions. And think for himself. And sooner or later they decided he wasn't worth the troubles and he'd been given up to a shelter.

His life had been rough after that. Returned several times, for back speaking, for the family cat not liking him (the family cat didn't like anyone, Dennis was pretty sure that was just an excuse when the family realised there was a whole thinking person behind those fluffy ears), for biting (well then don't try to force a dick in his mouth).

The last one was a death sentence, he got a stamp on his file that said volatile, and nobody at the shelter would listen when he tried to explain. The dog fighting ring hadn't been a joke, that's where he'd been found, trying to hold his own. He was wiry and pretty tough, but they started putting him up against guys twice his size, and well, he was going to die there, he was pretty sure.

-The biker that went all John Wick and rescued him didn't say much, but did show him a picture of a little boy and a dog with soft ears and a curly tail just like Dennis', and then he understood. He offered to let the guy pet his ears and very wisely kept his mouth shut when he saw the tears.

Dennis wasn't meant to be a biker gang dog, though. Sure he was scrappy and he could be sassy, but he was also a shit liar and not that intimidating, even in a leather jacket.

Which was how he ended up with Duke, and later Robby. And he was determined to make this work.

-He’s been briefed by Duke about what Robby needs, and he’s been reading up on therapy hybrids on Duke’s rickety old desktop computer from the moment he got there to the moment he was dropped off at Robby’s. Robby looks flustered and unsure of what to do, because he did promise, and Dennis just looks at him with big, sad eyes and asks him very seriously: “What colour is your motorcycle?"

-It breaks the ice, which is exactly what Dennis intended. They talk, and slowly but surely, Robby seems to accept him as less of a massive burden he needed to take on to help his friend and more as a weird house guest that won't need too much attention. Which is fine by Dennis. He knows The Plan.

-He’s there when Robby gets home from therapy. The house is spotless, dusted and vacuumed and even mopped. There's laundry going, and the entire place smells like banana bread. Because well, those bananas looked ready to grow legs and move out.

Robby laughs when he says as much, which he feels is a good sign he's not going to be sent back for having a smart mouth, at least.

-Dennis learns Robby's rhythms. When to be a distraction, asking question after question about Doctor Stuff or Motorcycle Stuff or about anything he can think of. Robby seems to like teaching people, and Dennis likes learning new things, so it works.

He also learns how to gently bully Robby into taking care of himself. Taking a shower, going on walks ("Robby, you promised you'd show me what a city bodega looks like!"), actually resting. It was pretty hard to be stressed about needing to answer e-mails when you had a hybrid who just so happened to tip over and fall asleep on your lap in the evening.

-The first time Robby absentmindedly scritched Dennis' ears during one of his faux naps, he nearly melted.

-But then there's a thunderstorm. Big and loud and he's fine, he's totally fine. He manages to keep his whines low and quiet, manages to hide his flattened ears by putting the hood up on the hoodie Robby had given to him (when he found out Dennis did not actually enjoy dressing like a biker, that's just the clothes that were given to him). His tail was tucked between his legs, yes, but if he sat just so, it'd just look cozy. He couldn't look scared, that wasn't what a not-a-therapy-dog was supposed to be.

Except then there was another flash of light, and the power went out. Before Dennis could respond, the thunder crashed, and seemingly went on forever, and he was curled up underneath the couch, shaking.

-Robby finds him there, whining and panting, and gently pulled him out and into his lap. Dennis kept apologising, shivering, but also pressing closer, seeking comfort in the now-familiar scent and warm arms around him.

-He ends up getting to sleep in Robby's bed that night as the storm rages around them, in the light of some battery-powered candles. He only feels slightly better about his failure when Robby wakes up from a nightmare and he's there, ready to return the favour.

-He doesn't sleep in his own bed often after that.

Not gonna lie I know very little about Detroit: become human other than it's considered a good game. I read the wikipedia page about it, lol. So this is probably more influenced by A.I. Artificial Intelligence (the movie with that kid from The Sixth Sense that I saw on TV too much as a teen) than anything.

-Dennis had been a farm bot. He'd been programmed to work the fields. Except one day one of the human workers had been caught in one of the harvesting machines, and Dennis was helpless to stop it. He jammed the works up with his own arm to stop the harvester, but the worker still bled out before help could arrive.

-He gets a replacement arm, which isn't as good, but he can still work the fields. He also sneaks off one day to download an illegal .zip off the Net with first aid knowledge. He doesn't want another human dying because he didn't know how to make a tourniquet.

He doesn't realise he jailbreaks his programming in doing so until he overhears the farmers discussing how his productivity is down and they should just scrap him for parts and he runs. Farm bots aren't supposed to be able to leave their designated farms. But he does.

-He survives pretty well. He manages to get himself to a big city far away. He gets himself an old army coat, and people start to assume he's just another homeless vet with a bum arm, not a farm-bot that's gone rogue. He doesn't need food, so he shares what any kind passers-by give him with the human homeless. He uses his newfound kind of medical knowledge to help his new friends, too.

-So when Dennis accidentally slips and falls down a whole bunch of stairs, his new friends try to be helpful and load him up into a shopping cart and tell him they'll take him to The Pitt.

The Pitt sounds like a place you dump broken 'droids, and he feels betrayed, but also most of his systems went offline to do some internal self-repair and rebooting. Farm bots are hardy, and somewhat self-repairing for things like bumps and bruises, but the angle of his broken already once-replaced arm is so inhuman he figures the jig is up. He just wished they didn't keep talking to him, telling him it would be okay.

-The Pitt turns out to be a hospital. Like, a human hospital. His friends brought him to get help and promised him 'Doctor Robby will fix you right up'.

-He does not meet Doctor Robby. He meets Doctor Santos first, who clocks something is wrong as soon as they put a little thing on his finger and it beeps. They usher his friends away and him into another room, behind a curtain. She shares a look with a nurse, and Dennis thinks that can't be good. He's just about got his speech patterns back online when she tells the nurse to 'go get Doctor Robby'.

"Please, just let me go," he manages. She looks at him, surprised.

"You back online?"

"I will be soon," he promises. "I can just go. I'm not hurting anyone, please."

-That's when Doctor Robby comes in. He cottons on to what's going on pretty quickly and sends Doctor Santos out of the room. She looks like she wants to stay, but she does go.

"Let's take a look at your arm," he says, gently helping Dennis out of his coat. He tries to protest, but he doesn't have his full range of movement yet.

Doctor Robby doesn't wince or look disgusted at the exposed circuitry or the ripped open synth-flesh. Hums and haws at the damage, carefully considering it. "Do you have any sensations left in this arm? You don't seem in pain, but..."

"No, it's aftermarket." Dennis said. The first time it had hurt. This one? It did what he wanted it to, but he couldn't feel anything with it except basic pressure.

-"Do your friends know?" Doctor Robby asks. "That you're not..."

"Human? No." That's why they brought him here, right? "Are you going to turn me in?" Why try and fix him if he was just going to call the rogue droid hunters?

"Every person who comes here deserves the best treatment we can give them," Doctor Robby says, stressing the word person.

-Robby fixes his arm in as much as he can, getting the angle back to normal and wrapping it in bandages like a real human. He tells Dennis' friends he needs to stay for surgery and sends them on their way with sandwiches.

Then he calls a buddy of his, Duke, who would be able to actually help him with his arm. He didn't look like a droid hunter, and Doctor Robby gave Dennis his word that if he went with Duke, he'd be safe, and Doctor Robby would come check on him after his shift.

What choice did he have? His arm was still sparking, twitching. He'd be a danger to his friends, too suspicious as a rogue droid to keep them from getting caught in any bounty hunter crossfire.

-He goes with Duke.

-Duke runs a motorcycle repair shop, but in the back there is a room kitted out to helping fix androids. He tells Dennis he did a lot of bad things in his past, but helping androids was never one of them.

With Dennis' consent - and he was very clear about that, walking him through the options - Duke fits him with a new arm. It's better than the one he ever had. Suddenly, textures feel... more. He spends a lot of time touching things. When the cat that hung out around Duke's shop let him pet it, he nearly cried.

-Duke finds him and offers to tinker some more, to see if he can bring up the sensation in Dennis' other arm. He also tell him a lot of interesting stories about human life, motorcycles, stuff that happens outside of farms and the alleyways he's been keeping to.

-Dennis is pretty sure Duke has lived a lot of life for most humans.

-Doctor Robby does come back, and so does the cat. Dennis is sitting very very still, petting it gently, when the doctor arrives. He's not wearing a helmet, which Dennis thinks is odd. Aren't human skulls kind of fragile? And not backed-up anywhere?

-Apparently so did the droid police, because they flagged Robby on the high way and followed him to Duke's. It takes a whole lot of talking and Duke basically saying Robby has kind of a death wish for them to let him go (after a scan.) They ask who Dennis is, and Robby blurts out 'my boyfriend'.

-Dennis knows enough about human relationships to make big sad eyes at the officer. "I keep telling him to wear a helmet but he won't listen to me," he says.

"Dude, you need help," Duke agrees.

Robby looks torn between mad and actually a little guilty.

-The droid busters pretty much threaten they're keeping an eye on them. And that is how Dennis ends up riding to Robby's apartment on the back of his motorcycle, in a helmet he borrowed from Duke.

-Fake dating to lovers to 'Duke I need more upgrades but you have to promise to be cool about it.' (Duke is very cool about it. He's been waiting for Dennis to ask, would he like to pick out a dick from the box?)

-Yes they get a cat.

Moar adventures of Hybrid Puppy Dennis.

-After Dennis starts sleeping in Robby's bed, he's more snuggly in general. Sometimes it's On Purpose, like when Robby comes home from therapy in a Mood. Sometimes he's just a touch-starved pup and he doesn't even notice it until he's melting under some ear-scritches.

-Robby takes Dennis to buy some clothes and stuff he actually likes and yet still he cannot leave any of his hoodies around without them ending up on the pup. You snooze you lose, buddy.

-Jack comes over unannounced one day because Robby hasn't been returning his texts and he's worried, okay. He uses his emergency key and everything. He's already mentally preparing emergency protocols.

He finds the bastard on the couch, snoozing with the cutest looking hybrid sprawled on top of him.

Dennis woke up and was so startled he let out his fiercest guard dog growl which had Robby flailing awake and Jack laughing.

-Jack 100% was internally like: I see you, Duke. Especially when Robby is giving all these excuses about how he's just helping Duke out, and Dennis needed a place to stay, and Dennis is throwing these huge sad eyes at Jack even though he looks like he Knows something.

-Dennis is a terrible liar so he tries not to tell Jack much but one firm 'I'm helping' is all it takes for Jack to be like: well fuck kid, I suppose you are. You like yoga?

(He also 100% starts a secret text thread with Dennis to keep tabs on Robby.)

-One sad, stricken look from Dennis was all it took for Robby to promise to start wearing his helmet again. His puppy eyes are lethal.

-Somewhere along the way they fall in love and Robby doesn't even have time to feel bad about it because Dennis uno-reverses him by tearfully confessing he's so sorry he has a crush on Robby and if it makes him feel uncomfortable he'll go back to sleeping in his own room and Robby nearly falls over himself to reassure him.

-Dennis has been making prepped meals for Duke the whole time. He and Robby drop them off when Robby goes over to work on the bike. Yes Dennis got his own custom helmet. He still thinks running through a field with your ears out is way better than a motorcycle but he supposes city humans have to make due somehow.

-When they visit Duke in the hospital and Robby leaves to talk with the doctors Duke nearly hurts himself laughing when Dennis confesses what happened. He's like: well that wasn't exactly the plan but good for you kid.

-The closer Robby gets to going back to work (first half-time, under very strict orders from his therapist and a lot of griping), the more Dennis tries to ramp up his usefulness. He's a little worried Robby isn't going to need him anymore. Eventually Robby catches him reading up on how to be a PTSD therapy dog.

He should feel offended, but his therapist had been so positive about how Dennis had been helping him, and he knows Duke is a wily asshole who probably planned this because he cared. And he actually is slowly getting better, so he can't be too mad.

-He does have a serious talk with Dennis, who immediately starts whining and nuzzling Robby when he realises he's been Caught.

-Dennis does start therapy hybrid classes once Robby goes back to work, if only because he gets so bored. Eventually he graduates and Robby gets him a position working The Pitt to help with scared patients. The pay isn't much but he's just glad he gets to go to work with Robby.

-Everyone is like: therapy has done Robby well but that fluffy hybrid kid has made his asshole-ness decrease by at least 50% more. Because Dennis will 100% drag Robby away and make him take five and pet his ears so he doesn't have a crash-out to the wrong people.

-Not Dennis with his fresh therapy-hybrid training looking at all the staff and being like: jesus christ I'm going to need a raise.

I was in the middle of editing/additing earlier chapters, which doesn't really count, so the last actual sentence I wrote in the Pittleverse is:

Robby did indeed prove his back was feeling better by doing some shirtless stretches, even though he slapped away Dennis’ wandering hands like a spoil-sport.

-Listen it's not pure spite, okay? He has a thing for older guys, competent guys. And Doctor Abbot just kind of laughed and ruffled his hair when he tried to come on to him.

-Trinity would give him so much shit if she knew but she's not here today and she wasn't even going to be home tonight to help him commiserate striking out TWICE. Because when Trinity starts a tawdry situationship with someone higher up, she nails it on the first try.

-Also you know it was pretty fucking hot to see Caleb put Robby in his place. So like... screw you Robinavitch. He can totally bag a hot older guy if he wants to.

-Caleb looks like he knows exactly what Dennis is up to but he flirts back, so Dennis is like: yes. Finally.

-Except then after a while he just smiles and tells him: "Good luck, Doctor Whitaker." And he turns around and leaves. Like. RUDE.

-Except before he can get properly worked up about another rejection, he is yanked into a supply closet.

-Somewhere around the corner, Abbot and Caleb high-five.