Sunlight was radiating through the curtain as Gavin woke up, and he instantly squinted in annoyance. Stupid ass fuck sun. He snuggled closer to Nines who was on power saving mode, or something like that. Gavin sat up and gently shook his plastic boyfriend. Nines' eyes fluttered open, and he looked up at Gavin.

"Hello," Nines said, his voice raspy as he had only just 'woken up'.

"Ah finally you're here bitch, do you have a dollar?"

Confusion clouded Nines' gaze and he furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"

"Oh, never mind, just a Tiktok sound that was used quite a lot," Gavin said dismissively.

"Alright then," Nines replied, still feeling confused.

"Anyways, we should probably get up and summon Connor," Gavin said.

"Oh yes, allow us to summon him," Nines said sarcastically. "He shall be summoned."

"Heck yeah."

"You're so silly," Nines said in an affectionate way. "And short as well."

"Fuck you, I'm not short!"

"Sure you aren't." Nines ruffled Gavin's hair and kissed his forehead before getting up. Gavin pouted grumpily and fixed up his already messy hair - hair that didn't need to become messier - with his hand, and then he stood up.

"I hate you," Gavin said as he went to the closet.

"Mhm. Sure you do."

"I do!" Gavin insisted.

"Alright. I shall begin to believe that you, my boyfriend, hates me," Nines said.

Gavin pulled out a shirt, a hoodie, underwear, and jeans. "I deadass hate you." He stripped down to nothing in front of Nines, and noticed that he was looking away. "You can look at me, Nines, it's not like you haven't seen me naked," he assured.

"You are correct, but I prefer to choose the more polite option, which is looking away."

"Such a gentleman."

Gavin was beginning to dress himself with sweatpants and a hoodie, but then he froze and stopped to reconsider. He had to fit the mold, and even if many deviants wore human clothing and variants of such, Gavin decided that it was better to be safe than sorry and instead wear his customised android outfit. It was the very outfit that made him blend into the android clothing binary to help protect his image of what he had to be portrayed as, an android. Any suspicions that he was a human and he was dead. Quite literally.

Gavin pulled on the suit pants, and then put on the white button-up shirt. And on top of that, his very own GV200 android jacket. Gavin put his fake LED onto his temple carefully, making sure that it properly stuck.

Nines handed Gavin some hair styling gel out of seemingly nowhere, and Gavin took it silently. Now is not the time to question where the hell Nines had got that from. He stared at himself in the mirror and squirted gel onto his hand, before running it through his hand. He styled up his hair as well as he could manage with bare hands. Nines then handed Gavin a brush, also seemingly out of nowhere.

"Where are you getting this shit from?" a highly confused and bewildered Gavin asked.

"A true magician never tells his secrets," Nines replied with a wink to go along with his quintessential word. Such a commonly used statement in these sorts of situations, yet so annoying.

"Whatever." Gavin looked back up at himself in the mirror and he brushed his hair so it finally had a perfect part. He put down the bottle of gel and the hairbrush on the nearby desk, then he stiffened up his posture and made his face have a look of seriousness. Gavin marched over to Nines, maintaining the stiff posture.

"How do I look?" Gavin asked, with a little grin. "Do I look enough like an android?"

"You'd fool me for certain and I would believe you're an android at first glance…"

Yes! Gavin thought triumphantly. He fist-pumped the air.

"... But that would be if you weren't a deviant. You look like you're trying too hard," Nines said. "Just walk how you normally do, and you will be fine."

Fuck! Oh well, I was close enough.

"Okay, thanks," Gavin said. He took a few steps away from then back towards Nines in his normal way of walking. "Like that?"

"Yes, but you're too tense. You need to relax."

Gavin raised an eyebrow. "Hm? Well, why don't you give me a massage then?" He asked.

Nines chuckled and he shook his head. "Another time, sweetheart. Another time."

"Okay, you big gay." Gavin gave Nines a kiss on the cheek. "Love you."

Nines gave Gavin a kiss on the head in return. It was a gay exchange. Exgaynge. "I love you too."

"We should get breakfast soon," Gavin said. "Well… I should. Unless you're getting thirium food again. Why do they even have that here."

Nines shrugged, then answered, "Verum is the place for both humans and androids alike."

"No, not alike," Gavin said flatly. "All you androids are lucky."

"How so?"

"Spared from the massacre."

Nines shook his head. "Say that to the androids who became mutated. Or androids like myself who gave up everything for humans."

"You sound like a person who wants a straight pride month." Gavin then shrugged at his own words. "Eh… Oppression discourse is meaningless in the end, this conversation is useless. I should take your help on board. We're all on the same boat - in some way or another, we're a community that goes against the norm and wishes of a much larger group and way of society. We're all parted into a minority group, even despite our differences."

"I suppose you're right," Nines said.

"This reminds me of LGBT discourse that used to happen," Gavin said. "To that I say - who cares? The straights hate us all anyway."

Nines laughed. A genuine, amused laugh, which Gavin was not expecting. He's so gorgeous when he laughs, Gavin thought, starting to blush.

"I was not expecting you to say that, even though I should have been in hindsight," Nines laughed. "I don't believe they hate us all, but, oh my RA9 that is so funny."

"Bruh what? I have said a lot funnier things," Gavin replied, despite a grin of his own. Haha, stupid android, letting me making him laugh. Still so fucking handsome either way...

Nines' laughter died down, but he still bore an amused grin on his lips.

He's hot he's so hot oh my god he is so hOT OH MY GOD.

"G-gay, you, you're gay," is all that Gavin managed to splutter out.

"Oh, is that so? Because someone is showing more symptoms of the gay than I am."

"Symptoms? Bitch, you-"

Gavin cut himself off when Nines grabbed his waist and dipped him. He quickly flung his arms around Nines' upper back in order to not lose his balance. "Ahh! Nines oh my god," Gavin groaned. Nines leaned down and gave him a few kisses along Gavin's jawline, causing Gavin to blush hard.

"Okay, enough, mister hee hee haa haa homosexual have are big are do be gay," Gavin said.

Nines let Gavin go carefully, releasing him from his arms grip in a slow way to ensure that Gavin was balanced on the ground until he completely cut all physical contact. "I could not comprehend what that sentence was supposed to mean. Thank you."

"You are welcome. Nothing can match my amount of large intellectual."

"Sure…"

Gavin flipped Nines off in a smooth motion before looking at the mirror and touching up his look by brushing down a stray strand of hair. He froze. "Fuck, hold on. We need makeup to cover my scar."

"Good thinking," Nines said. "I'm not sure why I did not think of that. We should use makeup to cover all of the imperfections on your face. I am not saying that you aren't perfect how you look, but your normal human features must be tinkered with to convey what society believes as perfect, therefore what an android should appear as."

"Damn, that's some deep shit right there," Gavin said. "We should have run an Instagram account together on hot takes. Since all the good usernames are taken and inactive, we could have named it like, hottakesbysomegays. But that would probably be taken. Ugh, why did my generation take all the good usernames when we were younger? We left none for the future human people!"

"There are no human people left remaining that could make use of the usernames, taken or not," Nines said.

"Nines, what the fuck!?" Gavin said, shooting his boyfriend a glare. "That's insensitive as fuck. You know I lost my friends! Why are you like this?"

Nines shrugged. "I apologise, Gavin, I did not mean it like that. Let's go find you some makeup to use."

"Yeah, let's. Would anyone have makeup? Is it still used?" Gavin asked.

"Androids would like to use it," Nines said. "I do not see why they would not."

"Okay, but does anyone here have it? 'Cause we're out, I know that," Gavin said. "Oh, wait. Lillian would."

"Go see her then," Nines replied. "I'll go get Connor."

"Okay. Then we can finally have breakfast."

Nines responded with a curt nod and the couple exchanged a short but sweet kiss before leaving their room. Nines parted from his boyfriend's side to get and fetch Connor, and Gavin went down the stairs. He walked across the large room and up another flight of stairs, and then stopped outside of Lillian's door. He knocked on the solid wood.

"Who's there?" Lillian asked from the other side.

"Er, me. Gavin," he replied.

"What do you need, Gavin?"

"Makeup, if you have any," Gavin answered.

"I sure do. It's unlocked, so come in."

Gavin opened the door and walked inside of the room, and saw Lillian laying on her bed with an open book. "Top drawer," she said, pointing to her small dresser and not looking at Gavin.

"Okay." Gavin went over to where she pointed. He felt some tension in the room - probably because of the incident that happened deadass in front of everybody. He opened the drawer and screamed when he looked at the contents and images inside, and he slammed it shut. "Lillian, oh my god!" he screeched with shock. Gavin was now permanently scarred.

"Gavin, oh my god, you opened the wrong one!" she yelped back, panicked. "I was clearly pointing at the other one!" Both of their faces were redder than strawberries at this point.

"No! You weren't!" Frantically, Gavin opened the draw. He quickly grabbed all of the makeup out of the correct drawer and ran out of the room, barely stopping to close the door behind them. Gavin ran away from her room. Oh my god oh my god oh my goD OH MY GOD.

Gavin had seen and even owned similar objects, sure, but he had never wanted to see someone else's. At least not without warning. Once, his drunk friend had shown him his own very interesting collection, but this was different. Way different. He quickly went back to his room and ran inside where he saw Nines and Connor standing side by side.

"Are you alright?" Nines asked as soon as he looked at Gavin's flustered face.

"I have seen things that I shouldn't have," Gavin said. "There were even photos. I can never look at Lillian the same again."

"I… Do not follow," Connor said.

"If he is talking about what I presume he is, then thank RA9 that you do not understand," Nines said. "I wish I did not hear what he had said."

Gavin dumped all of the makeup that he had grabbed onto the bed. "Okay, not thinking about… That… Time to make me pretty."

"You already are pretty, Gavin," Nines said.

"That's gay. Nines, help me look presentable for stupid android society, then."

Nines walked over to the makeup that Gavin had carelessly scattered and grabbed moisturizer and foundation. "Sit on the bed."

Gavin sat down on the bed, and Nines sat next to him. Connor just stood there awkwardly as Nines carefully applied makeup to Gavin's face. Once every part was covered, Nines put concealer and some other makeup carefully over Gavin's nose carefully until his scar was completely faded. He then did the same to Gavin's other small imperfections and the dark circles under his eyes.

Nines grabbed Gavin's chin and looked all over his face, and then he let go. "Okay, it looks good. Very convincing," Nines said. "You look like the android definition of perfect."

"Cool."

Neither Nines or Gavin pulled away. They just began to stare into each other's eyes, their faces getting softer and softer until Connor cleared his throat meaningfully.

"Er, I hate to break this cute moment, but we have to get some breakfast for Gavin before we leave," Connor said.

"Right," Nines said, pulling his hand away and then standing up. "Lillian can fetch this if she wants to before we get back. We don't have the time to return it to her."

"And plus I don't think I can look at her, like, ever again," Gavin added.

"I still am very confused. What did you see?" Connor asked.

"Oh, honey," Gavin replied. "You will never know, and it's best kept that way."

"Okay," Connor sighed.

The group of three left Gavin and Nines' room once again and walked downstairs to the food hall. Gavin got himself some cereal and ate it, before they all searched around for the person due to help them get a car - a man named Tom. Gavin saw him standing near the main entrance and walked over to him quickly.

"Tom, hey!" Gavin called out as he approached.

Tom swung his head and looked at them. "It's about time you got here," Tom said. He had pale skin and short black hair parted at the side, and was holding a bottle of car fuel in one hand and a crowbar in the other. "I was starting to think that you bailed."

"Never," Gavin replied. "Let's go get us a car."

Tom looked at Gavin's outfit and raised an eyebrow. "Nice clothing choice."

"You gotta do what you gotta do," Gavin shrugged. "It's better to be safe than sorry. Don't want the car to break down or anything with me looking like a human mess."

"I guess so," Tom said. "Still. Strange."

"Let us not waste any more time," Nines said, wanting to break any verbal exchange that could turn into conflict. "Tom, where is the closest location where we could get a vehicle?"

"Just the street closest to the mansion will do," Tom said, beginning to walk away from the mansion. "We can follow the gravel road. It becomes less gravel and more dirt along the way with plants growing on it which is why I think androids don't bother looking down here."

"That is a reasonable evaluation," Nines said. "I do not believe myself or my team would have inspected this area."

"What do you mean, you and your team?" Tom asked, stopping to look at Nines

Oh no, Gavin thought. Nines, you idiot, he'll fucking end you!

"Nothing, it doesn't matter," Gavin said quickly.

Tom looked at both of them suspiciously. "Okay…" he said slowly. "So, what do you need a car for?"

Gavin answered before Nines or Connor had the chance, "Oh, we're a patrol. We're going around specifically for furniture, food, and clothes, and thought using a car would be easier," he lied smoothly.

Nines looked at Gavin questioningly, and Gavin mouthed to him, 'I'll explain later'.

"Okay, cool," Tom said before he started walking again. He walked towards the gravel road with the human and two androids in tow. He led them down the gravel path in silence, and eventually decided to make conversation.

"So, why are you two androids here?" Tom asked.

"They-"

Tom cut Gavin off, "They can answer for themselves."

"Connor and myself had helped Gavin escape from an android institution where he had been imprisoned as a slave and derived of basic needs," Nines answered. "We had first taken him to a hotel where an android attacked him and threw him over the edge. I still cannot believe the sheer luck we had of saving him. Then we had taken him through a series of tunnels where we met up with Hank Anderson along the way, and then continued to travel where we came face to face with some android mutants. They had driven you out of their old home, I believe. They attacked us, took us hostage, we escaped, and they attacked us again, but we escaped. We travelled some more, stopped at another hotel along the way, and arrived here. We had helped Gavin escape, which is why we are here. We can never return to society - they know we had helped Gavin.."

"Jesus, some journey," Tom said.

"How did you sum up it up like that? Fucking hell," Gavin said.

"Wait, if the androids know you're both traitors, why go back out? That's a risky move," Tom said.

"For myself, there are a lot more androids of my model," Connor said. "So I am safer. It's not like we will try to look at other androids for long enough that they recognise us."

"What about the other android?" Tom asked.

"I…"

"I guess that we are so used to being on the run we didn't think of getting him a new outfit," Gavin answered for him.

"It's alright." Nines blinked once, and his once blue eyes were like Connor's brown ones. "This should help." He touched fingers to his android model on his vest and changed the numbers from RK900 to RK800.

"This is so cursed," Gavin said. "I hate it."

"Thank you, I knew you would," Nines replied.

Connor took a long look at Nines as he walked. "You look pretty convincing, but you still have an intimidating look."

"That is not something I can help," Nines replied.

"Okay, everyone shut up," Tom said as the ground beneath their feet transitioned from gravel to dirt. "We don't want to be loud and get attention to ourselves."

"Okay," Gavin said, lowering his voice.

No one said anything else after that, and all that they could hear was the muffled sounds of feet hitting dirt, with an occasional crunch from a random clump of gravel or a leaf. They walked until eventually reaching the end of the trail, and more specifically, a road.

"There's a car," Tom said, nodding towards a nearby commodore with tinted windows. "One of the windows is slightly down too, let's hope I can get this baby open without someone asking what we're doing."

"Which is carjacking," Connor said.

"Yeah, no shit," Gavin said.

"I do not believe I have to say this to a grown man, but Gavin, behave," Nines said sternly.

"Damn, okay then dad," Gavin sneered.

"You are missing two letters at the end of that word."

"Not this shit again!"

"I do not know what you're talking about," Nines said, rounding his eyes innocently as he looked at Gavin.

"Ew, stop, you look too much like Connor," Gavin said with disgust.

Connor gave Gavin a hurt look.

"Look at what you have done. You have made him upset." Nines set his hands on Connor's shoulders.

"Can you stop acting like idiots and walk to the goddamn car?" Tom cut in.

"Yes, I agree," Nines said, removing his hands from Connor. Tom scoffed and started walking to the car, and Gavin silently rolled his eyes as they all began to follow him again. They were approaching a 2010 model silver commodore car.

"That's a pretty old model, I wonder if I'll figure out how to drive it," Gavin said. "I should, hopefully. I've driven a similar car before."

"Well I hope ya do, because this is looking like our best option," Tom said as he approached the car. He jammed the crowbar into the window of the passenger seat, the window which was slightly open, and jiggled it around until the window completely dropped down, receding to wherever windows go when you move them.

"Would you download a car?" Gavin asked whilst watching. He couldn't help himself.

"Gavin, what?" Nines asked.

"Never mind."

"Shut up," Tom said. He unlocked the car and opened the door, then got into it and leaned over. He unlocked the drivers side then got out of the car. "Stay there while I hotwire this bitch. There's nothing rotten or anything in here, so we're all good."

"Oddly specific, but okay? Thanks?" Gavin said.

As Tom got to work, Gavin turned and looked at Connor and Nines. "You two look so alike yet so different. I don't know how much eye colour could matter."

"It usually doesn't," Nines said. "My usual eye colour is just so striking that it could be a key identifier compared to RK800s."

"You do be right though," Gavin said. "Okay, anyways, let's be quiet good boys."

"Do not ever say that ever again," Nines said.

"He has a point," Connor said.

Gavin was about to speak when he heard a spluttering come from the car, which captured the attention of all three of them.

"And she's alive!" Tom said, exiting the car. "Grabbed the right fuel too. Lucky me." He went to the side and poured in all of the fuel from the bottle before walking over to Gavin. "Okay, pay up."

Nines looked at Gavin with a frown. "What does he mean?"

"You didn't think I'd haul my ass out into danger for nothing, did ya?" Tom asked. He put out his hand. "Pay up, Gavin."

Gavin sighed and dug into his pockets. He fished out and handed Tom a packet of rolled cigarettes and a lighter. Tom smirked with satisfaction and walked away.

"Gavin, what did you sacrifice for this?" Nines demanded.

"Two days of food," Gavin said as if it was nothing. "But it's all good! It's not like I haven't gone without food for longer."

"Gavin, you didn't have to do this," Nines said with a worried look. "Never starve yourself, Gavin. Not for this. Not for me."

"What other choice did I have?" Gavin asked as he looked into Nines' eyes.

Nines just sighed and shook his head. "Let's just go, we don't know if this car is reliable," he said, "But we are certainly talking about this later."

"Whatever," Gavin said. He walked around the side of the car and got into the driver's seat. "Connor, Nines, you should both get in the back since this window is open," Gavin said.

"Can't you just close it?" Nines asked as he walked around to the passenger side. Gavin tried the button out, and the window closed.

"... Never mind. Get in here," Gavin said.

Nines rode shotgun whilst Connor got into the back seat behind Nines. Gavin put his foot to the accelerator which just made the car speed forward a few feet.

"Fuck, okay," Gavin mumbled and took a deep breath. "Gotta remember, gotta remember…"

Gavin slowly got himself adjusted to driving in of itself, and more so the car that he was in. He quickly got the hang of it. The car did not run smoothly but it was better than walking or taking public transport.

"So, anyone know how to get into the main city?" Gavin asked. "I think I can get to Kamski's from there."

"I have a GPS, do you not recall? I can direct you the quickest route the whole way there," Nines said.

"Yeah, okay, maybe you should drive," Gavin said.

"It is best if you do. I have never driven a car before," Nines said, "And I do not wish to learn now."

"But you can learn shit so easily!"

"It could potentially disturb my phantom code with such a shift. I do not want to risk that."

"Fuck… Okay," Gavin mumbled, tightening his grip on the wheel. "Nines, show me the way."

With the skilled directions from Nines, Gavin drove the car without any issues through the city of Detroit. They had to drive past the institution where Gavin had lived for those hellish two years of his life, and he allowed himself to burst into tears as they drove past and then stopped at a red light right beside it. He could not suppress the memories and feelings suddenly overwhelming him.

Nines put his hand on Gavin's knee, knowing just how horrible these feelings were for him. He massaged it softly.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Nines said softly. "We are not going any closer to this place, okay? Just keep looking at the road."

Gavin nodded, and he took a moment to close his eyes, knowing that Connor would be looking at the lights to inform him when to drive again. He felt Nines' hand on his cheek, gently rubbing away the tears. He sniffled and leaned into the touch.

"I love you," Gavin mumbled. "I hoped I'd never have to see that stupid place again."

"I love you too," Nines said softly. "And, I know." He kissed Gavin on the temple. "But I'm right here, okay? This was the best route to take, and my programming is bad at giving me detours. I would never let you suffer on purpose."

"I didn't think your programming could be bad at anything," Gavin croaked.

"Well, there are some flaws to every being. Even ones made to be perfect."

"Green," Connor said.

Gavin opened his eyes and began to drive again. He took a deep breath as he did so, and he concentrated on the road and other drivers around him to suppress another glance at the house of nightmares he was once in. That was the past, but… The past was something that Gavin couldn't let go of easily. And that even goes when it comes to his brother, Elijah Kasmki.

I hope that this goes well, Gavin thought. Otherwise we are fucked.