/December 6th, 2038. 8:01:34/

The morning after was always the worst part about any sort of late night event that ends up lasting too long. Your head's a mess, you're physically exhausted, and you can't remember half of what actually happened past midnight. Whether that event be a one night stand, or the sudden appearance of the most advanced android prototype in the United fucking States of America, it's all the same the morning after.

"Good morning, Hank!"

"Hello, Lieutenant Anderson."

Well, in this case, some things do end up changing just a little bit.

Rubbing the sleep away from his eyes, it took Hank almost a full ten seconds to remind himself that no, he wasn't seeing double; and to realize that yes, there were two identical looking androids waking him up at eight o'clock sharp.

"...did you guys even go to bed?" They must have gotten up at least a while before they decided to tag team him. Both of them were out of their dumb Cyberlife issued uniforms, fucking finally. Seeing Connor back in his uniform on top of meeting him back at that godforsaken tower was killing his heart (not that he'd ever let the android know). But Hank then remembered that neither of these androids actually owned their own clothing. Connor for the most part just stole individual clothing items from Hank's wardrobe and called it a day. His outfit today comprised of a baby blue polo shirt, some boxers, and a pair of miss matched socks. The newly dubbed Nines on the other hand, "Is that my Knights of the Black Death hoodie from the twenties?"

The RK900 despite not having been alive for more than a day, seems to be able to tell when he was being judged. "...yes it is. Is there a problem with me wearing it?"

Connor took that opportunity to sit down on the bed next to Hank, resting his back on the headboard. "No Hank, you're suppose to say 'look at how great you look not wearing that dumb Cyberlife uniform anymore.'" He would probably not ever realize how close he had gotten to actually guessing Hank's exact thoughts. Stupid android precognition.

Meanwhile, Nines stood mechanically at the foot of his bed. Almost as if he was afraid of getting too close to the two of them. It took probably too much reassurance than it should have from Connor and Hank's explicit approval before he even felt comfortable sitting down on the edge of the mattress.

Sometimes Hank looked at androids and felt jealous, what with their eternally good looks and superior physical strength. But then he gets to see shit like this. A newly born android, fresh out of the processing plant if you will. And then this infant of a person thinks that they're a machine without emotions. That if they show likes, dislikes, or even a vague sense of a preference over something that they're defective. That they're wrong, or messed up in some way. That they need to be destroyed in order to be redeemed. It reminded Hank too much of the way victims of abuse handled their emotional situations. It was horrible.

In the wake of the revolution, the police got handed many cases involving the more rambunctious androids out there. Those who decided that looting and stealing were a better option than conforming to the human society that they now found themselves in. While the revolution had come with it the improvements that gaining a set of human rights does to a population, along with it came all of the legal punishments being filed out for them. Oh god all the paperwork. The precinct had been pretty busy the past couple of days, even focusing solely on android related crime. That's not even considering all the humans using the revolution and the evacuation following it as an excuse to disregard the law.

Then there were those who had no clue what they were going at all, like Connor's replacement here. Struggling to even think about living their own lives without the constant presence of Cyberlife behind their backs. To some extent, Connor himself was a part of the later category.

Hank could never truly know what it was like for them, to consider themselves inferior to human beings. But dammit if he couldn't empathize with the feelings of isolation and depression that came from self image issues, then he would eat his shoes.

He sighed, "Can you just give me like ten minutes to get ready? Then we'll go wherever the fuck you guys need to go."

"Actually Hank," Connor shyly reached for Hank's hand. "We were wondering if we could stay here today?"

As Connor rubbed circles into his hand, all he could do was grumble half heartedly. "What're you planning this time? The last time I let you stay in my house alone for more than three hours was when I came home to a spotless kitchen."

"It's not like that this time! I promise that we will not complete any housework without your permission." At least he sounded sincere while he said that. Checking his LED, Hank realized that it was cycling between blue and yellow.

"Why're you going yellow then?" The android's unoccupied hand flew up to his temple. It was like touching the ring on his head allowed him to know what color it was projecting. Actually it probably did, now that he thought about it.

Then, as if reacting to something unspoken, Connor whipped his head around to look at Nines. "I'm not easy to read!"

He could make the assumption that they were telepathically communicating, but he felt a little bit out of the loop as Connor started to contribute to a conversation that they were apparently having in their minds, but responding to it out loud. "Yes, I know what you want to ask him, and yes he'll agree with me!"

Then he paused, "No, you'll be fine Nines. We won't be going anywhere without both of our agreement on it!"

Another pause. "Just give me a second."

Essentially, Connor was talking to himself. Hank could only look between the both of them questioningly, "Should I understand what's going on right now?"

"No—"

"Yes." Finally the RK900 decided to speak up.

"Nines! Let me explain it to him—"

"I-I do not wish to be taken away from you."

"Wait, what the hell?" The android didn't want to be taken away, what the fuck did that mean? Hank, realizing that he was still essentially laying down in bed, pushed himself up into a sitting position. "We're having this conversation after I've put my damn pants on. And after I guilt Fowler into giving me the day off."

After a rushed five minutes of getting ready, and he looked barely presentable. An old short sleeved tee with a faded logo of some school that he may or may not have gone to, his worn jacket, and a pair of old jeans. Fowler would write him up a disciplinary warning if he knew what Hank was wearing as he called the station, but it was functional. The important thing about that was that he was decent.

"So tell me," he started. "What's all this crap about not wanting to be 'taken away' from us?" Hank could probably figure it out, he wasn't a lieutenant for nothing, but it would be better to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. In all honesty, he was just curious. As he waited, he took a sip of the coffee that had just so happened to be waiting for him on the counter. Definitely not there to influence his mood or anything, the androids both made for investigation and interrogation probably wouldn't try a manipulation tactic when trying to convince someone to do something. Yeah, he took the coffee anyway.

Sitting awkwardly at the kitchen table, the two androids glanced at each other. Again, Hank could only watch as they seemingly communicated with their minds, with both of their LEDs going yellow. And once again, it was Connor who decided to speak up.

"Nines doesn't think that he'll be allowed to stay here if anybody else knows his location. We wanted to wait a while before deciding on how to go to Jericho."

"Oh yeah?" Hank couldn't help but bring it up. "Hate to break it to ya kid, but I doubt that Jericho will be happy to take you in after that show you put on for them yesterday. You do realize that you shot at least like five androids? Non-lethally, but still."

"Hank, that was before he became a deviant—" As soon as he had said the word Nines visibly flinched. Wait, androids don't flinch. What. Even as he noticed it, Connor continued talking like nothing had happened, "When we were together, I could see that it was obvious he had been build with emotions, just like any other intelligent android. I'm going to talk to Markus about him, but until we can guarantee his safety he's not going anywhere. Hank, please, will you let him stay here, just for a little while?"

As much as he would have liked to say that he had to think long and hard on the answer to that question, in his mind he knew what he was going to say the moment the words left Connor's mouth. "...Sure. Just don't go and break anything in my house, alright?"

It was pretty funny in hindsight, Hank the resident android hater is the one who ends up hosting two of the very same in his own house after their peaceful revolution. If it was to atone for his sins, then he probably wasn't doing a very good job of it. But dammit, he could try! There wasn't any harm in housing another android, he might as well take in another if he wanted to go full out pro-android rights advocate. Plus, Sumo seems to like him, so he couldn't be that bad of a person to be around. Ever since they had gotten up that morning, the saint bernard hadn't left the RK900's side, the fluffy traitor.

In response, the two androids could only stare at Hank. "What, did I finally break your android logic programs?"

"Well it's just that—I expected a lot more resistance than that. I put it at only around a 25% chance of you accepting the deal immediately, even with caffeine in your system." He just knew the coffee was a trick.

"Like I said, faulty programs. You need to get your brain checked out?"

"No Hank, my internal computing software is working perfectly fine!"

He chuckled in response, "You go and tell yourself that, but in the meantime. How about we do something, if we're going to be staying here all day, why don't we have a movie night?"

Connor nodded his head seriously, as if suggesting a movie night (or day, in this case) was as serious as deciding the fate of the entire world. "Yes, that will optimize the amount of enjoyment we can get out of this day. Or as you would say Hank, it is now we can have fun! What do you think Nines?"

The RK900 only looked at the two of them blankly. "W-what is to be accomplished by watching t-these movies?"

"Lots of things! They often show younger humans stories that teach life lessons or about the morality spectrum. Others are made simply for their entertainment as a visual medium. I believe that even as an android we can benefit from watching them."

"Plus even if they're not fun for you, maybe you can appreciate the cinematography and shit in them? Hank added.

He and Connor waited with baited breath as Nines looked like he was contemplating on whether or not he wanted to watch a movie with them. Well, it was kinda hard to tell exactly what he was thinking. In the day that Hank has seen the android he's gone through exactly four expressions. Neutral 'I'm an android' face, vaguely interested face, slightly sad face, and 'help me I'm crying and I don't know why' face. But it looked like he might need to add another emotion to the list. The 'I'm happy but I don't want you to know that I am' face, which was basically just Nines looking away bashfully with a small smile. At least he was showing a lot more emotional depth than when Connor had first met him, it's improved for him. It's improved for both him and Connor in such a short amount of time.

Hank could feel a sense of pride rise up in his chest. God he was such a dad.

With the speed at which all these android were developing emotions, you'd almost have to think that Cyberlife was intentionally making and then repressing hear emotions in order to sell them in a commercial market.

...But now's not the time to be thinking about all of that. Right now, Hank had the company of two identical looking androids who wanted a movie night at nine o'clock in the morning.

And goddammit, if they were going to watch a movie marathon they were going to do it right. If only so he could show Nines about how life was worth living, and how The Lion King was the greatest Disney movie ever made. The human, two androids, and one dog ended up spending the entire day watching all kinds of movies, from live action to cartoon comedy.

He knew that this peace couldn't last forever, this domestic unknowing bliss was going to have to be shattered soon. It was only a matter of time. But for now, Hank could give the newly born android laughter. And that's all that he needed right now.


Sumo sitting on Nines' lap: Its free real estate. :/

A/N: The Lion King is the best movie that came out of the Disney Renaissance don't fight me on this. But really, pretty much the entire Disney lineup should be required view for any new deviants if you think about it. That doesn't even include the entirely of the other pieces of media that influence majority pop culture in the twenty years in the future that this game takes place in. Lots of references to catch up on.