In which a dark past comes to light, Nines can't do small talk and Gavin's tombstone shall read 'death by second-hand embarrassment'.

[Warning: mentions of work place bullying and past (unintentional) non-con.]

Screams of steamers and the low seated groans of coffee bean grinders filled the air, along with a soft buzz of chatter and the clinking clatter of cups and cutlery. Gavin hardly noticed any of it, too busy trying to talk around a mouthful of chicken, bread and avocado.

"So never?" He asked, before swallowing it down with a large gulp of coffee.

"There are some androids who can consume drinks and food. I myself can take in small quantities of non-thirium liquids. But there is no point; it's just for show. The substances also have to be removed later which is… irritating."

Gavin smiled to himself behind another sip of coffee. About a month back, Nines probably would've said 'inconvenient' or 'time consuming' there. Opinions were a big part of being a person (in Gavin's opinion at least.) He was quietly glad Nines was getting more comfortable sharing them.

"Fair enough," he shrugged before changing the topic. "So how's the hobby hunting going? Video games keeping you busy?"

Nines hummed and leaned forward on the table, shifting his weight in a way that would put most humans at ease. Gavin eyed the movement semi-approvingly. To be honest, he had already gotten used to the way Nines kept himself still for long periods of time. But Nines has insisted that he wanted to learn how to sit like a human, so Gavin had taught him. (Not that he was the best teacher in this regard. He knew just enough to know Nines shouldn't copy him.)

"I found some of the games you lent me momentarily interesting, but I confess they didn't engage me for long."

"Didn't have your handicap to slow you down, eh? Makes it less fun," Gavin chuckled, taking the last bite of his sandwich.

"Perhaps you are correct," Nines conceded, head tilting to the side, causing his LED to catch the reflection of one the café lights.

"...Hey Nines, why'd you keep your LED?" Gavin paused and quickly backtracked. "I mean, I don't think it's a good idea to get rid of it. But, I dunno, if you had, it could've made blending in with people more easy."

Gavin looked up at the LED, at the calm circle of blue lazily spinning in Nines's temple, then glanced back to Nines's eyes as they bored a hole in his face.

"I did remove it once," he said in a flat tone, no longer shifting or fidgeting in the way he had been doing the last half an hour. "It was before I joined the central station, when I was in the eighth. I found it… worse. Most knew what I was anyway, what with my resemblance to Connor. But, for those few who didn't, they knew there was something different about me but with no sign of what it was, there was no excuse to them."

Gavin put down his coffee, the clink of it somehow deafeningly loud, despite the wall of noise surrounding them. "Oh. Right, so-"

"Why did you say it wasn't a good idea to get rid of it?" Nines interrupted, head tilting and body shifting once more, like that moment of stillness had never happened. The loud chatter of the surrounding customers seemed to grow suddenly.

"Dunno," Gavin shifted and looked away, trying his best not to think about red LEDs and sudden bursts of blue blood, and failing. "I mean, it's part of you, yeah? Shouldn't have to give that up."

Nines didn't say anything to that and Gavin couldn't look at him so he didn't know how he responded. Gavin could feel him staring though.

"Excuse me, is this chair free?"

Gavin glanced around, as did Nines. A woman with a rather familiar face smiled politely at them and pointed at the third chair at their table. It took a moment for Gavin to clock onto why she looked familiar. She had the same face as the android receptionist they used to have in the precinct. She had no LED but Gavin was certain she was the same model. Definitely not the same android (she would have never approached Gavin if that were the case) but, yeah, she was an android. He glanced at Nines who hadn't said anything, who was just staring at her. Gavin rolled his eyes.

"Knock yourself out," he told her.

"Thank you," she beamed, picking it up and going to join a table full of similarly faced woman and one human teenager with a pot of tea before her. Gavin watched them for a few moments, vaguely wondering what the story behind that was before turning back to Nines. He was still staring at her.

"Jeez, don't you remember what I said about staring?" He asked, making Nines blink twice and turn to him. "Or- wait, does it matter to androids? I mean, is there a different set of rules about what's cool and what's not?"

"I wouldn't know."

Gavin fixed him with a look and waited. Nines blinked again, surveying the group one last time before turning back and focusing on Gavin.

"I haven't had many opportunities to socialise with androids. Most of those I have met, I have encountered during cases."

"What about Connor? Must've talked to him a few times outside of the job."

If it were possible for Nines to blush, Gavin was pretty sure he'd do it here. Instead, he gave one of his bright, fake smiles and shook his head. Gavin didn't say anything. He just waited. Nines's fake smile dropped and he looked away.

"I made a few mistakes with Connor which have proven... difficult to overcome."

Well, colour Gavin curious. He knew from the gossip vine (aka Tina) that Connor wasn't overly fond of Nines, but he had just figured it was just Connor being a little bitch.

"What happened?"

"I..." Nines paused and frowned. "I tried to kill him."

Well.

Uh.

This wasn't a conversation Gavin thought he'd be having in a Starbucks. He tried to think of what to say.

"… Join the club," he eventually settled on, taking an overly casual sip of his drink. By Nines's lack of reaction, it seemed that he knew about this already. Which made sense; Hank hadn't exactly kept it on the down low when he found out. Gavin was lucky to still have his teeth after that. Hell, he was lucky to have his job. Fowler hadn't really cared enough to push the inquiry though and just dropped it when Gavin explained his side. Gavin had thought that Connor was up to something bad, Connor resisted arrest and Gavin got the shit beaten out of him. End of story.

Except for the part where Gavin would have totally killed him given the chance and everybody knew it.

It was strange, facing Nines, who looked so much like Connor, Gavin felt a stirring of shame build in his gut. The only thing that made him feel any better was the knowledge that he wouldn't make a choice like that now. Not now he knew Nines.

"You don't want to kill him now. You've got that."

Nines sharply looked up from his hands. "I never wanted to kill him. I wasn't deviant then: I had no choice in the matter."

So, not the same club then…

"Explain that to Connor," Gavin muttered, looking down at his coffee, fingers tapping along the rim. "I'm sure he'd get it."

"I tried, when I applied for the central DPD, I approached him again," Nines paused and glared into space. "I didn't do it correctly though. I believe I spoke too literally and the method of communication felt inefficient so I attempted to force a connection."

Once again, Gavin's mind went back to that interrogation gone wrong, to Connor gripping that android's cut up arm and forcing himself in, and to what happened next.

"Jesus," he breathed, fingers frozen on the cup. Nines looked down at his hands.

"I wasn't aware then that such actions could be deemed inappropriate. I thought it only a means of communication. He… did not react well."

Gavin took a moment to compartmentalise his thoughts on this. Nines was watching him, awaiting his verdict.

"So you learn then," he shrugged, bullshitting an air of nonchalance into existence. "Let's call it another lesson. I'll help you get on with androids and later we'll work out a way for you to make it up with that asshole."

Nines's eyes widened. His mouth opened and closed twice before he gave a faint, almost smile.

"Thank you, Gavin."

"Yeah, well, don't thank me yet. Hell if I know the first thing about androids, other than your plastic ass."

They ended up going to a park. Mainly because, for the life of him, Gavin couldn't think of anywhere else androids might go. They don't eat and they don't drink (apart from blue blood) so that ruled out about 90% of the places Gavin usually went to.

They sat on a picnic bench and looked out across the playground and dog park. There were a few people there braving the chill to enjoy the cold blue sky and the vibrant red leaves of fall but most of them were humans so far. The androids they had seen, were either in large groups already or too wrapped up in their own business to disturb. It didn't matter though, for now Gavin was fine just sitting at the bench bundled up with a thick scarf and with a hot cup of watery coffee set before him. He needed to give Nines a few pointers before he went blundering off into a conversation anyway.

"So," Gavin started, breathing steam over his fingers to keep them warm then running them across his jaw. "When you see someone who looks up to chattin', what do you do?"

"I go up to them and ask if they would like to interact," Nines decided with a firm nod.

Gavin sucked on his teeth and pulled a face. "Uhhh, I'd start with 'hey' then maybe some small talk if I were you."

Nines's LED flashed yellow briefly, probably as he looked up the word 'small talk.'

"I'm not good at small talk, Gavin," he said, giving him a worried look.

"Figured as much. It's not that hard; we've done it before you know, when playing cards and shit."

"Yes, but I know you Gavin."

There was a beat of silence.

"… Look, you just go in, say hi or whatever, then ask if they come here much. Or maybe talk about the weather. Try it with me."

"Hello, Gavin. Do you come here much? The weather is clear, 41°, 10% humidity, with a strong possibility of frost in the evening."

Gavin gave Nines a deadpan look, forcing down the laughter bubbling in his chest and causing his lips to twitch.

"Ah, no, not exactly," he coughed to cover his smile and straightened his face. "Watch me: hey, haven't seen you here before. Do you come here often?"

Nines watched intently as Gavin schooled his features into something that somewhat resembled a polite and pleasant smile, in the same way a Rottweiler resembled a chihuahua. Gavin's face wasn't used to being polite and pleasant.

"Nice weather, ain't it?" Gavin continued, trying his best to keep smiling and not let any sarcasm leak through his voice as he waved his cast at his surroundings. "Hope it stays like this for a bit, bet it's gonna get colder though. You like Autumn?"

"Yes," said Nines, nodding. "But I like winter more."

Gavin pulled himself out of the act and snorted. "That was just an example of what to say, Nines. You didn't need to answer."

"Oh," said Nines and Gavin leaned over the table to mess up his hair. Nines's worried frown changed to an irked frown as he smoothed down his hair again.

"It's fine, you dork. We can do small talk if you like," he paused and cast his mind about for a new topic. "So, do you live near here?"

"Not too far, I live in a small flat in Madison Heights."

"Woah, really?" Gavin asked, forgetting the small talk for a moment. "You live there? That's a nice area, for Detroit."

"And how about you? Where do you live?" Asked Nines in a polite tone.

"Nice," Gavin grinned, before getting back into the act and answering him.

And so it went for a bit. As always, Nine was a fast learner. It was easy to get pulled into the conversation and forget they were just practicing. Gavin was just in the middle of telling Nines about how crap the the weather had been a few years back at this time of year, when Nines held his hand up and stopped him.

"I believe I have spotted an android who might be amiable to the small talk."

Gavin gave a quick glance around and sure enough, he spotted the somewhat familiar face of a blond, blue-eyed, LED-less android sitting on a bench with a book. The fact that it was a real physical book was interesting. Although it didn't seem to be a good read by the guy's bored expression.

Gavin looked away and gave Nines a shrug. "Go for it if you want."

Nines went for it.

It was hard to tell from a distance what they were talking about. Gavin was shit at lip reading, always had been. But it seemed to be going well. The Android had stood up, slowly nodding at Nines's words, and there was a smile on his face. Nines smiled back and waved one of his arms around. The android scratched the back of his head, tussling his hair, and leaned forward slightly.

…Wait a minute.

Gavin squinted at the android, observing him more carefully. He had stepped a bit closer now, nodding his head and grinning wider. Nines said something and he laughed, eyes lidded.

Oh shit, abort, abort! Gavin thought as he watched the obvious case of flirting go boomeranging over Nines's head. He was waving his arms at the sky now, grinning as he obviously (and obliviously) turned the conversation towards the weather. The blond android's smile fell slightly. Gavin put his hand over his eyes and decided he couldn't watch anymore.

A few minutes later, a slightly puzzled looking Nines sat across from Gavin. The blond android was long gone.

"I'm not sure what I did wrong there," he said.

Gavin slowly brought his hand away from his eyes and stared blankly up at the sky. He was going to have to tell Nines about flirting, wasn't he?

Fuck.

Next Lesson:
Flirting