Gavin woke up with a start. He opened his eyes and had a groggy look on his face, and he realised that he was lying in the arms of Nines. On a couch. In a house.

As the memories flooded in, so did the ache due to his wounds that were covering his body. He gave himself some time to savour the moment of being in the warm embrace of Nines, even with the stinging cuts that he wasn't able to completely divert his attention from. Eventually, Gavin knew that he had to wake him up.

"Hey, Nines. Nines. Nines. Hey Nines."

Nines opened his eyes and looked at Gavin. "Yes?"

"I hurt, like, a hella shit ton. Can you go and grab some painkillers and food for me?"

Nines nodded with a smile. He gave Gavin a gentle kiss on his temple. "Of course, I hate to see you in pain, my dear. But first…"

Nines picked up Gavin and carried him to the bedroom with the two beds, setting him down gently on the unoccupied one. In the other bed Hank was snoring loudly.

"I'll get Connor to deal with that," Nines said. He gave Gavin a quick kiss on the lips before leaving the room.

A few moments later, Connor entered the room. He sat on Hank's waist and slapped him a few times on the face, much to Gavin's amusement. Hank's eyes shot open and he was alarmed, but as soon as he saw that it was only Connor, he relaxed.

"Connor, the fuck are you doing? Why the fuck are you on me!?"

"I wished to bring you into the conscious world, and therefore that is exactly what I have done," Connor said, moving off of Hank and returning to standing on the floor.

"Whatever," Hank grumbled. "Later we have to get moving, like I said last night."

"Can't we stay another day? Hank, think about it - this is a perfect house. Food, water, clothes…"

Nines abruptly entered the room, picked up Gavin, and left. He carried him to another bedroom. This room was fairly larger, and had a queen-sized bed in the centre.

"Why didn't I know about this before?" Gavin asked.

"The door handle was broken. It was a challenge to enter," Nines answered. He settled Gavin down on the bed. Gavin audibly sighed with content, instantly sinking into the gentle fabric caressing his body.

"Holy fuck. This is is fucking comfortable," he said.

Nines sat beside him. "I agree," he said after getting a feel of the bed. He stood up again and left the room, and quickly returned.

Nines put a plate on the nightstand before holding out his hand, which was holding two painkiller pills. Confused, Gavin leaned in and licked them off of Nines' hand.

"What?" Nines said,flustered and confused by the motion. It was plain to see that the android was not expecting Gavin to do that in the slightest. Nines shook his head. He then handed Gavin a glass of water whilst staring at him with a weird look.

Gavin downed the water and then set the glass aside, next to the plate. He curiously peered forward at the plate. On it was what was most likely canned spaghetti, and tuna as well to the side.

"Oh… thank you, Nines, but are you completely sure about that mix of food?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Fuck, why am I even complaining!? I haven't had this good of shit for a long time." Gavin carefully sat up in the bed, with the help of Nines. He ate a bit of the spaghetti. It was warm, and definitely was the canned kind. Gavin began to shovel the food into his mouth, letting out little moans of unadulterated enjoyment.

After Gavin had ravened the entire plate, he looked at Nines. "Thank you, bitch."

Nines responded by making a projected image emerge from and protrude in front of his torso. It was something that Nines had not seen in a long time - a meme. Not just a meme, no, this was crafted by Nines. In a text format.

The meme contained this:

Me: *says romantic things to my boyfriend*

My boyfriend: *calls me bitch*

"I… I am bamboozled," Gavin said. "What? How did you make a meme?"

"I have upgraded. I have downloaded thousands of memes into my memory, and can create the most perfect memes to appeal to any audience," Nines said.

"That's amazing. Kinda useless now there's not many humans, but still amazing. Admirable. Can you show me one of your perfect memes?" Gavin asked.

"Maybe some other time," Nines said.

"Pleeeaaase?" Gavin begged. "I need my food."

"But Gavin, you just ate."

"I need my meme dessert!"

"Another time, Gavin. You have to wait. Sometimes you resemble more of a child than my boyfriend," Nines said.

Gavin huffed and lay back down. "Well… go shit your pants," he said.

"You can be so needlessly immature." Nines rolled his eyes.

"That's not true! Piss yourself!"

"Another example of what I'm talking about."

"Ugh, I thought that you were used to my vibes," Gavin said. "I don't need this stress, Nines."

"You're right. My apologies," Nines said. He left the room and left the door only slightly open as to not lock Gavin in.

Gavin sighed. It felt strange to be inside of a room that was his own again. Then again, everything to happen to him recently was strange in some way. He looked at the window which had a curtain drawn over it, before staring at the ceiling.

Gavin's brain was echoing with countless thoughts. They were dripping and drilling all throughout every little crevice of his darkened mind. Memories of the horrible things that have happened to him and around him, the fearful thoughts about the future, the nagging anxiety asking 'does Nines really like you?'

And somehow, simultaneously, Gavin's mind was blank.

The murmurings of his soul overcharged Gavin's brain, leaving him both with a thousand pieces of scattered thoughts, memories, and worries but also a clean slate waiting to be painted on.

The human mind is such a strange, complex thing.

Then he started thinking about the day. That dreaded, dreaded day. Gavin would give so much to just rewind and turn back time, and stopped the android revolution from getting so far. Maybe his begging against android advancements should have been more persistent.

Gavin felt the waterworks begin. His eyes welled up with stinging tears, which he tried to desperately push back (but evidentially failed).

Gavin's body rocked with small sobs. As soon as a sound portraying his weakness befell from his lips, Gavin smacked a hand over his mouth.

The door opened and Nines entered the room with haste. He had heard the singular sob from his boyfriend and therefore instantly arrived to check on him.

"Gavin, are you okay?"

Gavin slowly sat up. He shook his head and he sniffled. "N-No… no. I'm just thining about that stupid day which I lost everything, fucking androids, I…" his sentence trailed off as he cried harder.

Gavin felt a pair of arms go around him and hold onto him tightly. Gavin set his head on Nines' shoulder, needing his closeness and his warmth.

"I'm, I, fuck… thank you for being here," Gavin croaked.

"Of course." Nines placed a gentle kiss against Gavin's forehead.

Gavin let the tears stream. "I want to stay with you forever, Nines," he said. "I don't want to be a slave or on the run any longer.

"I know," Nines said. "I'm here for you, okay? I'm here for you."

"I know." Gavin kissed Nines gently. "Please stay with me forever.'

"I can only try."

No promise of forever? Gavin thought, saddened. He really did have so much hope in their relationship. He wanted to just figure out what is truly wrong with Nines, so he could help him.

Nines got up. "You try to rest, okay? You need it. You need some rest."

"I want to do something more here then eat and sleep," Gavin said. "I'm going to see if Connor wants to play a board game." Gavin left the room and he went to the room that Hank was in.

"... I could've played a board game with you," Nines said dejectedly to a now empty space.

As Gavin had presumed, Connor was present in Hank's room.

"Hello Gavin," Connor greeted. "It's nice to see you walking around well."

"I am full of painkillers, I barely ache and whatever I do I will definitely regret later."

"Um… Okay then," Connor said. "What appears to be upwards right now?"

"What?"

"Oh, I should elaborate. You humans say 'what's up'. What a strange sentence."

"Okay Connor, you do that I guess," Gavin said. "Anyways. Wanna locate and play a board game as I am very bored right now?"

"Let's do it," Connor agreed.

Gavin left the room with Connor, resulting with Hank laying alone. They searched and located a few board games, and had a brief discussion on what they should be. Monopoly was chosen and they played a game of it. Gavin lost in the end. This resulted in him flipping the board, yelling "fuck you shitty pp, you are the living equivalent of not having enough toilet paper".

Gavin stormed straight to bed. Nines was in Gavin's room but left very quickly once he noticed Gavin's vibes, who had groaned at some pains shooting up his leg.

"Yuck, the painkillers are already offing themselves," Gavin said before flopping onto his bed. Before he knew it, he had passed out on his bed.

Gavin woke up to Nines gently shaking him. Gavin placed his hand on Nines' face and pushed him away somewhat softly.

"Go away, I was sleeping," Gavin grumbled. "I hate being awake. Not to mention the pain I'm in because of those dumb android things."

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to look at the full moon with me," Nines said. "Stargaze, moongaze. With me."

Gavin stared at Nines. "You're being serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"True. Wait, doesn't Hank want us to leave or whatever?" Gavin asked.

"I convinced him to let us remain here until you're more healed. You certainly need more time before we can make another trip. I'm afraid you may collapse on the way, or something could go wrong and you won't be able to run."

"Thank you."

"Of course." Nines gave Gavin a gentle smile. He kissed Gavin's cheek. "So, would you want to go outside and stargaze with me?"

"Yeah. I want some painkillers first though," Gavin said. "Bitches be hungry."

"Bitches be hungry indeed," Nines agreed, which caught Gavin off guard. The surprise must have shown in Gavin's face, because Nines chuckled. Nines walked out of the room, leaving Gavin to just look around it.

Nines came back and gave Gavin the painkillers and some water. Once Gavin had consumed both, Nines picked him up. Nines carried Gavin outside onto the back porch of the home. Only half of it was covered with a roof, leaving a good view of the sky.

What Gavin hadn't noticed about this place when he had first arrived is that there was a porch swing. A porch swing is one of those long swings, like a stretched out rocking chair except in the shape of a swing and not a chair. Think of what it would look like if a swing bred with a couch.

Nines sat Gavin down on the porch swing before sitting down next to him. Nines put his arm around Gavin, and Gavin leaned into Nines. He stared up at the sky.

Gavin had always taken the sky for granted. Until lately, he had never appreciated its beauty. The beauty of the cloak of darkness shrouding the sky; bejewelled by an array of little specks of white surrounding the white moon. Crickets were chirping and a gentle breeze blew against Gavin's face, giving it the numbing chill that the night gale usually does.

"Nines, do you remember the times I always denied my homosexuality?" Gavin spontaneously asked.

"Yes," Nines said. "What was the reasoning behind that? Had you not yet come to terms with your sexuality?"

"Well… Sort of, I suppose. I have always known deep down, but due to… reasons, I have always made myself think I'm straight."

"Why, if you don't mind me asking?"

Gavin took a deep breath. "It…" He then hesitated. "Don't worry, it's not important."

"If whatever it is has impacted on what you believed was your sexuality, then it must be important," Nines replied.

Gavin took another deep breath. Wow, he was breathing a lot. "Okay. Well…"

/Gavin was fourteen years old. He was sitting at his dinner table, eating dinner with his parents and his brother.

"Gavin, honey, how was school?" Gavin's mother asked.

"It was good! I spent time with my friends and my boyfri- best friend! I meant, best friend."

"Did you just say boyfriend?" Gavin's father asked, his voice having a dangerous undertone to it.

Gavin began to panic. "I-I… Mom, dad, I'm gay, okay!? I know you won't ever accept me, but I'm gay. I like boys and I always have. I'm happy with my boyfriend."

Gavin's mother gasped and his father stood up. He picked Gavin up by the collar and began to deliver him punch after punch, making Gavin uncontrollably shake with fear as the pain was conducted.

"No son of mine will ever be gay! You brat should try to be more like your brother, not a goddamn poof with no potential."

Gavin tried to get out of his grasp. He looked at the other two members of his family desperately for help. To his dismay, he saw his brother turn away and his mother encouraging his father.

Gavin was betrayed. His parents were meant to love him unconditionally, and he had always been there for his brother. But then again, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened - plus, Gavin was aware that his parents were homophobic.

Blood gushed out of his nose as he continued to struggle. "Please stop," he begged.

After one final blow, Gavin's father dragged Gavin off of the chair and shoved him to the ground. As Gavin tried to get up, his father kicked his side without holding back, causing Gavin to screech with pain and collapse onto the ground.

"Get out of my house. You can only come back when you get the stupid idea that you're gay out of your head."

Gavin made a dash for the front door, running out of the house. He spent the night cold and alone. The next day, he returned.

"It was stupid to think I'm gay," Gavin said somberly.

/

"That one night had given me such a deep trauma that I spent the next good portion of my life believing that I am straight," Gavin said after he had recounted the night. He was close to tears.

"I'm so sorry, I… don't know what to say. You should have never had to have gone through such an experience, my god. You had a terrible family, Gavin."

"I know. I should have gone to live with my boyfriend. I wish I had a therapist."

"What happened to your relationship afterwards?" Nines asked.

"I broke up with him. I regret that decision," Gavin said. "I should never have let my parents break me like that. Sometimes the truth seems just too hard to be true."

"Well, you're in a better place now… In some ways."

Nines placed his hand gently on Gavin's cheek and tilted his head so they had eye contact.

"Gavin, I have something I've been meaning to tell you."

"What is it?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Gavin couldn't hold back his huge grin. He leaned in, as did Nines, and they met in the middle for a deep kiss. They were tangled in each other's embrace as they shared a kiss that was strong with nothing but unfiltered love. Gavin's lips fit perfectly with Nines', and this kiss like every other sent fireworks throughout Gavin's body and made his face red.

Gavin slowly pulled away once he decided that they had kissed for long enough.

"I love you," Gavin said. "I love you! It is you that I love!"

"Calm down there," Nines laughed. "You are very adorable, dork." He held Gavin close and kissed him on the nose.

"Thanks, you're handsome sometimes."

The confession and the kiss had brought Gavin's mind away from the memories. Of course, love and affection will never heal a damaged person, but it can certainly distract them from what haunts them.

Gavin leaned against Nines, who held him closer. Nines kissed Gavin's cheek.

Gavin went back to looking up at the moon and the stars. As the painkillers kicked in, he became sleepier. Gavin closed his eyes and fell asleep curled up to Nines side - the place he wanted to be forever and always.