Part 1
I was Distracted
They had called it in hours before his shift started.
Gavin was working early mornings now. For years, he had preferred the special kind of chaos hidden only by night's dark ambience. These last few months, though… well, waking up to daylight didn't seem so bad anymore.
But they had called it in overnight and he hadn't been there to catch it.
To prevent it.
None of the usual androids were present in the precinct today. It was an obvious conclusion considering the news, but it shined an entirely new light to see just how empty the building could be without all the glow-ringed sentients. Even with the police bots missing, Gavin still mindlessly expected to be acknowledged by Connor's maddeningly over-joyous morning greetings and Nines' blank addressal broken by his signature deviant smirk.
Neither RK was present.
They were no different from the rest in this plight.
Hank hadn't shown up to work yet either. Gavin wasn't sure if it had anything to do with the breaking news or if this was just his typical tardiness. Did Hank even know? He had certainly grown attached to the RK800; he would want to know.
Gavin would want to know, too. Most days he could really strangle Connor for the snarky traits he inevitably inherited from his human partner's influences. On the remaining days, however, Nines was the one to sweep up and rebuild the shattering pieces of hope Gavin was regenerating for humanity; human humanity as well as android humanity.
Like Hank, he had more-or-less latched onto his own android partner. After Tina first dropped into maternity leave, CyberLife's latest (and last) model had conveniently filled the hole.
The RK900.
Nines.
The warmth drained from Gavin's face when he arrived at his partner's empty desk; the terrifying conclusion suspended in his mind. Now there again existed a hole; a gaping wound of a hole gushing adrenaline with every pulse of his heart. Where was he now?
Gone? Destroyed? Dead?
Even if it was the worst possible scenario, Gavin needed to know.
"By creating machines more intelligent than ourselves, we took immense risks with the very future of our civilization. After fourteen long months, the consensus on the humanity of androids failed to be supported by the lawful documents upheld by our forefathers. It has become clear that even with the designation of their own territory, New Detroit, there will be no possibility of peaceful coexistence. The total destruction of androids will soon be brought to completion and the last remaining deviants will be hunted down and destroyed. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America."
On this fateful day, every competent officer cleared for street duty was out trampling the city to monitor for and gun down escaping androids. Gavin was made no exception to such duties. The department couldn't afford one missing badge today. Sentient machines were now a danger to society; they would certainly be wreaking havoc now in response to the national threat.
Before, Gavin never much questioned the law. Politics was bullshit run by the money-makers. He did what he was sworn to do on the job and he slept the rest of his life away at the end of it. Today, however, he would do his normal job as always, he would do it selectively, and he would do it for the only android that had ever truly mattered to him.
Fuck the law.
Nines was the most intelligent being Gavin had ever met. Unfortunately, that also meant it would be even more challenging to find him. The detective decidedly sifted through the shiftiest of alleyways and through abandoned buildings that were often overlooked. Along the way, he caught hold of a few androids who had overpassed the surveillance of his fellow officers. A year ago, things would have been different. Gavin would have been less willing to honor the lives of these life-sized plastic dolls and call for backup. Instead, now, he sought their eyes in exchange for freedom.
None of them had even recognized the model name RK900.
As the hours ticked by, the half-life of his hope had been disintegrating at a more alarming rate than he first perceived. And when Hank Anderson had finally showed his face, Gavin was at the mercy of a rare sight: the lieutenant's cheeks glistened in streaks and a tragic confusion marked his soulful gaze. Connor was gone, or missing anyway, as Hank reported. Which meant Nines was potentially suffering a similar fate. Whatever that may be.
Despite having known him for an entire year, Gavin struggled to put himself into the shoes of his partner. Where was a place that his RK would feel secure enough to hide out this madness? A place undetectable by even CyberLife itself?
The pair had never performed many social activities outside of their common mutual spaces. Those spaces were made up mostly of crime scene investigations and the precinct itself. Nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, there was the occasional bar when Gavin indulged in his unhealthier habits and had requested a drive home by his tolerable android. The first couple times had been by pure necessity. The following times… had all been excuses. Excuses to see him outside of work; excuses to pull him closer without seeming so obvious or desperate.
Yet still, Nines was the worst deviant in the history of deviants. He rarely spoke of his personal affections. The more volatile the thoughts, the less likely he was to make them known.
Gavin more-or-less admired that about the RK900, but it made interpreting his feelings for Nines even harder. It wasn't until he reached a drunken stupor only months ago that it all tumbled fleetingly from his mouth.
For an entire car ride, he had contained the building pressure within his gullet. If he let the powers that be relinquish themselves, Gavin wasn't sure what would be on the other end: chunky ethanol, verbal truth serum, or a little bit of both. He didn't want to find out.
His shaky plan had worked for some time, but then Nines had to go and grab him by the waist. Gavin's motor abilities had been unstable, and he had needed support up the staircase to his apartment. Already alcohol heightened his sensory organs and having Nines touch him was exhilarating. The synthetic muscles that contracted beneath him sent an infuriatingly sensitive shock to his nervous system, and blood was pooling into areas he could not control. Gavin had to fling himself from the android onto the final step and crawl covertly on his knees to his door just a few feet away. Heat rushed to his cheeks as he fumbled with his key ring.
The alcohol had him in a chokehold. Nines placed a shoulder on the intoxicated man and looked on with concern. It was the most emotion that Gavin had probably ever seen the RK900 wear. The sight was unbearably weakening to the already haggard detective and so he spewed every thought and feeling from his tapped lips like a broken dam.
The alcohol, not Gavin, spoke of horrendously embarrassing truths like the way he preferred Nines in his plain black turtleneck and how he didn't mind sitting so far from his partner because of the way the particular light above Nines' desk accented him like a display case. It was the alcohol, too, that pressured him into admitting that he had to start wearing looser jeans a long time ago in response to the RK's presence. He especially swooned over the scarce red pulses of Nines' temple, knowing full well his thoughts in those fleeting moments had traveled down a humanistic path. It was a tasteful reminder that the stoic android was, in fact, deviant and that he had potential to love, to have passion, and to be deviant with – to? – him.
Oh, he wanted to feel the android's unbridled deviancy all over his body.
Nines was quiet during the monologue, checking each individual key into his partner's apartment door as he listened. A sudden click made Gavin's voice falter and the sobering reality of returning to an empty bed struck him. Silence weighed heavily between them as they stood at the entrance together.
"You should get some sleep," said Nines calmly. His face was unreadable, but his movements were unhurried. What did those words mean?
"Come in," Gavin spoke promptly. "I-I have some old robot films you said you always wanted to check out. Do you like Scrabble? Not 'lotta food except boiled peanuts, but – oh fuck – you don't eat. Wait, I threw them out already. I mean, gah, I'm just tryin' to say-"
"Perhaps another night, Gavin." A small smile tipped the android's lips and he pulled the door to close behind him.
What did it mean?
Bubbling pits of heat bursted into feelings of humility when consciousness alongside vague memories greeted Gavin the following morning. No way he could have gone to work after saying all those things. And after Nines had turned him down like that? Tina needed to be back from maternity leave that day.
The sun hadn't quite risen yet when Gavin inched his way into the precinct. To his relief, the android had not noticed him slip into the break room and he kept quiet as he made himself a cup of streaming tolerance juice. He had watched Nines sitting peacefully at his desk; the same particular light above him reflected in a glimmer off of his synthetic skin as it always did. For but a moment, he fell into the recurring fantasy of being alone with Nines within the confines of the locker room, fingers grasping imploringly at his shoulders, teeth sinking into the crook of his neck, and…
The RK900 shifted his head.
Gavin turned a blind eye, knowing he had been rightfully caught. He was no mechanical life form, but it had become a sudden fear that Nines – now pacing towards the break room – would attempt to dive into the deep dimensions of his memory and dig out the luscious daydreams spanning over a months' worth of time.
Gavin panicked. He clenched the styrofoam beneath his fingers and concurrently squirmed under the burning liquid. "Morning," was all he had mustered to the approaching RK before practically jogging to the bathroom. There were napkins in the break room, he knew, but it was his one excuse to find an area that the vexing android had no need for.
That didn't stop Nines from entering the bathroom anyways. "Detective Reed, I've cleaned up the mess. Are you hurt?" Gavin could see the same concern that had been the stimulus to his truth serum from last night. He bit down on his lip so as not to verbally embarrass himself further.
Through the sink mirrors behind where he was reaching but not bothering to grasp for paper towels, he could see Nines staring at his hands. "I'm fine," he grumbled. Gavin turned to the nearest sink and ran cold water over the unbroken skin.
Another silence separated them.
"Are you sober?" asked Nines.
Gavin scowled. "Yeah, I'm sober. You think I'd come to work drunk?"
"That's not why I asked." He stood as still as a board.
The tuft of hair that misaligned from the rest of Nines' organized poise demanded an extra hitch of breath from the surly detective when he turned to face him. "Then why ask?"
Of all the reactions Gavin predicted, a smirk was not one of them. "I believe you owe me a date."
"A wh-what?" he spluttered.
"I understand you were intoxicated at the time of the offer. Have you changed your mind? I'd very much enjoy a movie, or a board game, and some trashed legumes."
Gavin had not believed the words that he was hearing. Was this Nines reciprocating his feelings or was this just a way to make him feel like he hadn't completely lost this manhood? Although the latter theory was not supported by his android's well-known diminished social programming. "I-I don't… Why are you saying all this now?"
"Are you sure you're not still drunk, Gavin?" The question came out a purr, the RK stepping forward ever so hesitantly. "Your alcohol levels seem higher than the typical hangover."
Great, now he was being insulted about his ability to manage alcohol. "I'm positive I-"
A slender touch brushed against his cheek and Gavin was left in a state of inaudible shock. He inhaled a sharp breath at the soft circles that Nines made with his thumb as his eyes roamed his lips tentatively. Then, a realization dawned on him. "I-It was all true, you know? It wasn't because I was…" The cap of his sentence dropped several octaves before it escaped under an exhalation.
"I know," whispered Nines with a growing smile. "I've known for a long time, asshat. I only wanted to make sure you could say it without the crutch." A taunting eyebrow shot upwards on his face.
Gavin couldn't help but to relieve the tension caught in his throat through a dry laugh. He appreciated the affectionate profanity that broke the android's commonplace stoic demeanor. It was an accrued habit that Nines used on a selective basis.
"Wait, why the fuck did you wait for me to say it?" Gavin didn't respond equivalently. Instead, he leaned away from the android with obvious affliction. His partner was known for crude honesty, but the sudden shift in discourse had Gavin questioning everything he thought he knew. Androids were like children: half of their personality was influenced by external factors and the other half originated from a genetic component, or in this case, an innately programmed personality. Deviated Nines was not going to be the same person in a year that he was the first day he walked through the precinct doors. He already wasn't.
Gavin had never heard the android giggle before. Nines giggled then, "Because you're the emotional one."
"Fuck you," said Gavin. He placed his hands on the android's broad chest and used the leverage to shove him lightly backwards (though the movement did nothing more than to press his shirt tighter against his pecks). Another burning sensation rose to his ears as the instigation backfired on his reproductive anatomy. Everything seemed to be working against him that day.
Nines bumped his nose teasingly against his partner. He steadied Gavin's disorientation with another hand raised to complete the cradle of his face. The previous smile dropped from the RK's confident front and a pleading shape formed in his stare, requesting silently one satiating action.
Gavin did not refuse. Rather, he stared challengingly into the android's dilated grey eyes. "Maybe one day," was all Nines could say before touching his lips to the agape suspecting pair beneath him.
The hot aroma from Nine's redundant breath lingered on Gavin's lips as he reminisced on their first kiss. The ghostly touches ripped at his heart when he stepped up to Hank Anderson's front doorstep. Although the lieutenant had put up a convincing display of grief earlier, he needed to cover all of his bases. Not to mention, desperation was beginning to eat him alive.
Dare he allow his hopes to build as they were?
After a stinging knock that rung silently for several minutes, Connor eventually peaked his head through and forced Gavin inside by the neck of his shirt. Relief flooded the human detective, thankful for years of investigative work finally paying off.
A fist remained ruffled against his chest, immobilizing him against the wall. "What're you doing here, Gavin?" The homogenous mixture of terror and fear suspended in Connor's voice frightened him more than he had ever experienced from the older RK.
The hysteria was contagious. "Wh-Where's Nines?" he croaked.
Author's Note
Based on the song "If the World Was Ending" by JP Saxe and Julia Michaels.
Short Three-Part Story (so I can channel this desire to make Reed900 come alive).
Enjoy!