Thanks to the new following/favorites fam! HugoGirard, KimShibbyBob, Coconutman17
Alina squealed in delight, cupping her cheeks as she relished the freshly-made cloud-like pancakes.
"I love this job so much more than Christmas decorating," Alina declared in a giddy manner, taking another sample of the pancake. "Can I be your kitchen assistant for tomorrow too?"
Simon laughed loudly, clutching the middle of his stomach with one hand, while the other tried to cover his face.
"If I kept you as my kitchen taste tester, we might not have enough treats for everyone else." Simon's eyes crinkled at the corners.
"I wouldn't say that!" Alina put her hands on her hips. "I helped you experiment a bit with Asian Egg Tart sweets and introduced matcha to your recipes."
"Alright, alright." Simon playfully conceded to her argument. "I can say that your cooking skills aren't too bad either, especially when you've been the one teaching Connor."
"He's getting better." Alina grinned brightly in a proud manner. "This week we're learning variations of omelettes. Today we made spam omelettes, some parts were a bit too runny. But it tasted yummy in the end."
"Yup, I saw them in the group chat." Simon nodded back. "Not bad for his first time."
"Oh yeah, how are your android studies with Josh?" Simon wiped the flour off his face and took off his apron.
"Engineering is pretty hard, I never studied it before. Learning about stuff in real life is different from seeing it in a textbook." Alina plopped onto the tall kitchen stool next to Simon. "Josh is a really nice teacher though; it's only been 2 days. But he makes sure that I'm learning at a pace that's fit for me. Besides, learning about android mechanics in a hands-on manner is much more fun than what I learned back at school."
"What did you learn back at school?" Simon inquired as he pushed the last rack of pastries into the oven.
"Boring stuff: geography, history, etc. etc.," Alina babbled, picking at the pancake slice she got earlier. "Here, I get to learn android first aid 101."
"Josh would be sad to hear that," Simon playfully countered back as his mouth curved into a smile. "He used to be a college professor, you know?"
"I suppose he would." Alina jumped off the chair and helped to mop up the leftover flour on the kitchen counter. "But from what I've seen, most of the time college students fall asleep in class regardless. It doesn't necessarily reflect the teacher's performance. I think it's a matter of topic preference."
"I thought you were a high school student? Since you're 16." Simon raised a curious eyebrow.
Ah, shit.
"Uh." Alina froze in place while rinsing the washcloth. She darted her eyes to the side, her heart rapidly thumping in chest as she tried to whip up an excuse.
She swallowed hard as her voice caught in her throat, but tried to quickly regain her composure as she gave a nervous lopsided grin.
"Hehe, I-uh, my co-workers. They-they were co-college students, usually." Alina took a deep breath and did a nonchalant shrug to cover her slip-up. "Oftentimes they told me about how boring their classes were and fell asleep in them. One time, they also sneaked me into one of their big 300 student lectures."
Alina gave a nervous chuckle and looked away from Simon, finding it hard to lie straight to his face. She silently hoped that in reality only a couple of seconds had passed. Luckily, Simon seemed satisfied with her answer and didn't press on.
"Is that how Josh deviated? Because his passion for school didn't line up with his students?" Alina playfully inquired, trying to steer the topic away from her mishap.
"That's...you might wanna Josh for the specifics on that…" Deep creases formed on Simon's forehead as he frowned.
"Ah, I touched a bad subject right?" Alina instantly regretted her previous words. "Sorry, it must be scary. To deviate or whatever situation that triggered it."
"I think as long as you understand, then it's good," Simon said thoughtfully. "Besides, everyone's experience with deviancy is different. Some of them are good, some are bad. Josh's… just happened to be on the bad side."
"I see. . ." Alina muttered under her breath, still feeling apologetic for bringing down the mood.
"And speaking of deviants, it looks like one of them is ready to pick you up right now." Simon's expression softened as he let out a small smile, dissipating the uncomfortable atmosphere. "Connor's at the gates for you right now."
"Oh, he messaged you just now?" Alina began to pick up the pace of cleaning up the kitchen venue. She let out a satisfied huff once they cleaned away the last spec of flour and everything looked good as new.
"Yup, he just got to Jericho's gates," Simon answered as he put away the last of the ingredients in the cabinets. "I'll walk you to Jericho's main gates, let's pick up your stuff from the locker for now."
Alina nodded back and then walked up the venue kitchen doors. She pressed her ID against the scanner.
Beep!
The kitchen doors let out a familiar click signaling the digital system's approval of her leave from the area. She pressed open the doorway, randomly humming 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' as she walked through various hallways to the locker room alongside Simon.
At first, the gesture of scanning into several Jericho buildings was a bit annoying and unfamiliar. However, she quickly got used to the idea of using her ID card to gain access to Jericho's rooms.
It was a routine procedure for human visitors to sign in and out of several Jericho locations. That way if anything happened, Jericho could find out about potential intruders and narrow down their search.
Some humans claimed that it was an invasion of privacy since their every move was being monitored by the androids in this sense. At the end of the day though, these humans still ended up abiding by the rules.
Beep-Boop!
Alina's locker rang a playful tune as it registered her fingerprint and her 4-digit pin number. Instead of an easy pin like her birthday, she ended up choosing a pin based on the day she arrived in Detroit, 3121.
The locker room for humans she had chosen in Zone 1 was relatively near the venue kitchen, so Alina and Simon didn't have to walk much.
"Hey Connor!" Alina exclaimed excitedly, creating sweeping arcs with her right arm as she ran towards him.
She felt the hairs on her neck prick up suddenly as she became keenly aware that some nearby people were staring wide-eyed at her gesture.
As the distance between Connor and her closed, she could see his shoulders relax slightly and his lips part into a joyous smile.
"Ready to go?"
"Yup! I got everything from my locker." Alina clutched her jacket's flaps together as she zipped it up. She had hastily put it on so that Connor wouldn't have to wait long.
"Thanks for looking out for her," Connor turned to Simon with a grateful look.
Simon, who had walked over calmly, was a couple of steps behind the fast-paced teenage girl.
"It was my pleasure; Alina's no bother at all. If anything, I foresee a potential career as a sous chef if she wanted to," Simon cheerfully replied. "How are things on your end by the way? With police work and all."
"Police work isn't too overwhelming right now." Connor then proudly looked over to Alina. "Alina helping a lot around the house has relieved a lot of burdens in general. Hank's complexion has gotten better ever since he started eating Alina's cooking too."
While the two androids continued talking, Alina instinctively shrunk her body as felt the stares of many people in the vicinity. As she peeked behind, she noticed that there were a variety of expressions.
Some were confused, some seemed to be observing the two android leaders' conversation, and there were a couple that appeared to be angry with her presence there? She couldn't really tell the intent behind the people who were narrowing their eyes at her.
Alina caved her back as she suddenly felt out of place next to Simon and Connor. That must be it. Maybe they don't like a human being so friendly with their respected android leaders?
"Are you coming to the Christmas celebration, Connor?"
Alina perked up at the mention of the Christmas party. She looked to Connnor eagerly, her eyes shimmering with anticipation at a hopeful answer.
Connor chuckled apprehensively, rubbing the back of his neck. "I-uh, I don't think so."
Alina's shoulders sank instantly upon his reply. She knew that Connor and Hank had already approved of her coming to the Jericho Christmas celebration with Simon earlier in the day. But she hardly knew anyone at Jericho as well as Connor. Sure, she made a couple of acquaintances and maybe some potential friends while helping around, but it wouldn't feel right to go without Connor.
"I'll just drop you off at Jericho like usual." Connor gave an anxious smile.
Alina gave him a pout and her best puppy eyes. He did it all the time to her during cooking sessions: it was only fair that she got to try the same attack on him.
Fortunately for her, her puppy eye attack seemed to have worked a bit. Connor sheepily bit the bottom of his lips and after a stagnant couple of seconds, he relented.
"I-I'll consider it." Connor nervously looked over to Simon, avoiding Alina's gaze.
Simon's eyes lit up, his expression elated at the small change in Connor's attitude.
"Great! Regardless, Markus and the others will be happy to hear your decision." Simon put a comforting hand on Connor's shoulder.
The PL600 android then discreetly threw Alina a thumbs up behind his back. Her lips parted into a smile at the covert gesture.
"Well, we have to go." Connor hurriedly pulled Alina to his side. "Thank you again for everything."
"Anytime," Simon replied, his gaze softening at the pair.
Connor and Alina began walking towards a taxi as they waved goodbye to Simon at Jericho's entrance. Alina paused midway, realizing that she forgot to do something important. Connor raised an eyebrow, watching her silently run back towards the gates.
Alina abruptly stopped in front of Gary, causing the gatekeeper android to narrow his eyes at her. Ansel, the other guard on duty, tilted his head to the right at the surprising situation.
"Thank you for saving me earlier." Alina bowed her head a bit, afraid to look up to see Gary's reaction. She didn't want to see his cheeky expression at her conceding to him. "I...I didn't get to say it earlier."
"I-I know we have our differences in opinion," Alina swallowed hard, still not willing to look Gary in the face. She was pretty sure he would only laugh at her flustered expression while she put a part of her pride on the line. "But regardless, thank you. I...had forgotten to say that earlier."
Alina immediately straightened her back, her eyes meeting with his for a split second before she ran straight back to Connor. The detective's forehead was creased together as he stood waiting by an open taxi door.
"Why did you bow towards Gary?" Connor curiously asked, looking over the girl's head to Jericho's front gate.
Alina simply laughed to herself, jumping into a taxi seat as she briefly recalled how Gary's eyes went round from her show of gratitude. It was just a split second interval that she happened to see his expression before running off, but it was very much worth seeing something different than the usual discontent he gave her.
"It's nothing," Alina giggled some more. "I just happened to see something quite amusing after thanking Gary."
Connor furrowed his eyebrows, but hopped into the taxi car seat next to her. "What did you thank him for?"
"You didn't see Jericho's public forums? Well, Simon did say that topics change quickly over there." Alina pulled the seatbelt over her shoulder and watched Connor do the same as the car engine started. "I almost fell from doing Christmas decorations and Gary caught me. It was strange because I was so used to him throwing me annoyed looks, I didn't expect him to help me out."
"Gary's not treating you well? Hmm maybe I can have a word with him," Connor contemplated, resting his fingers against his chin.
Hm? That wasn't the purpose of the bow though.
Alina leaned forward, about to clarify what she meant, until she saw how Connor's mind seemed to be elsewhere as he stared into the distance.
Connor suddenly had his lips set in a grim line, took in a sharp breath before exhaling slowly out.
Alina waved her hand over in front of Connor's face. "Earth to Connor, you still there?"
Almost instantaneously, Connor turned his attention back to Alina.
He gave her a once over with a grim look. "Are you sure you're not hurt anywhere? I just found the footage in Jericho's public forums."
"It's fine!" Alina waved off Connor's concern with a bright smile. "Gary broke my fall after all."
The muscles in Connor's face tightened, clearly still skeptical of her words.
"More importantly." Alina rested her head on a propped up arm. "We should talk about your potential participation in Jericho's upcoming Christmas celebration."
Connor instantly cringed at the mention of the party, his shoulders slumping.
"You just need to go for five minutes," Alina pleaded with her puppy face again. "Just five minutes, in and out. And then you can go back home."
Connor arched a sly brow, his expression changing to a more amused look. "What are you planning?"
"Nothing~" Alina hummed back, focusing her attention back on trying to appeal to him. "Just five minutes?"
"Even five minutes is dangerous, you know?" Connor let out a heavy sigh.
"I'm well aware of that," Alina solemnly said, taking a deep breath as she leaned back on her seat. She recalled in the game, whenever you made a decision as an android and scanned your surroundings, time seemingly stopped. Or rather, time seemed to pass slower. It made sense since androids processed things much faster than humans. That meant within five minutes, Amanda could do an enormous amount of damage to Jericho.
For a couple of seconds, she just continued staring forward at the passing Detroit streets as she tried to think of a counter to Connor's argument. The taxi was taking them to a set GPS coordinate to meet Hank in downtown Detroit for some Christmas shopping. If Alina was going to convince Connor to go to the celebration, this was probably the best and only time. It would be too awkward for her to bring up again later.
"But you know… you can't avoid them forever." Alina cautiously looked back over to Connor. "You're a core part of their team, a core part of Jericho. Think about what you're going to have to do in the long term...Can this style...of your relationship really last like this?"
Connor said nothing in return, but Alina could see how clenched his fists were.
"You did everything you could in your power to lock Amanda away," Alina slowly spilled out. "You consulted with Josh, Simon, and all of Jericho's engineers. Not to mention Kamski, out of all people."
Connor had revealed to her later that apparently one of the outsiders that had taken a look at the code was none other than the genius behind androids themselves. Unfortunately, Kamski could only give Connor a temporary fix by locking the Zen Garden behind more layers of coding.
Kamski couldn't fully remove the program since he only created the first version of it, but he supposedly promised to look for the developers behind RK800 to help free the deviant. He told Connor to come back in a month's time for future developments, claiming that even geniuses need time to figure things out. Alina didn't trust Kamski's words, but she wanted Connor to remain hopeful.
Alina steeled herself for the next set of words, swallowing hard.
"You can't live in fear forever, Connor." She stared deep into his brown eyes, the words finally rolling off her tongue.
Connor stiffened at her declaration, breaking into a cold sweat and darting his eyes away.
"I-I know that you're afraid… and I don't want to force you to go, if you don't want to. Ultimately the decision is yours to make… but please just give this event a chance," Alina softly stated. "And if you don't go in the end, just give me a little heads up."
Silence hung in the air for a couple of minutes, then there was the sound of Connor's fingers drumming against his leg.
"I-I'll try," Connor eventually answered, fidgeting in his seat. There was still fear and anxiety in his eyes, but he tried to put up a brave front.
The corners of Alina's lips perked up, recognizing the extra effort Connor was taking, "That's good enough."
An automated female voice suddenly reverberated through the taxi: "You have reached your destination, thank you for your patronage."
Sure enough, Alina could see Hank waving to them from within a coffee shop window, just a couple yards away.
Alina glanced at Connor to see how he was doing, surprised to see him wearing a determined and composed expression. She went to open the doorway when she heard Connor murmur a couple of words.
"Hm?" Alina tilted her head to the side, indicating that she didn't hear his words.
Connor blinked owlishly at her before swallowing harshly. "I'll try my best."
Alina simply nodded in return, not sure what else to say.
Alina sighed contentedly as she took in all the beautiful Christmas decorations in Detroit's shopping district. Fairy lights were strung all around, gracing the streets to give a magical feel. Some shops had wreaths on the doors, others had banners with the words 'Happy Holidays!'
Christmas was always her favorite holiday. It was one of the few times of the year she got to properly hang out with her mother. Her Thanksgivings always got cut short since both her and her mother would work Black Friday shifts to help cover the mortgage costs and car loans.
The trio was currently looking for ornaments to decorate Hank's Christmas tree. While Alina was staring eagerly at a puppet house window display, Connor hung around awkwardly to her side.
"Loosen up a bit more, Connor." Hank playfully wacked Connor's back, nearly knocking the android off balance.
Alina's best guess was that Hank probably noticed how tense Connor was coming from Jericho.
Connor gave a weary smile, but seemed to have appreciated the gesture shown by Hank. His shoulders relaxed a bit more and he began to wander about the nearby Christmas displays.
Alina let out a sigh of relief to see Connor more at ease. Suddenly an item from a thrift shop window caught her eye. She rushed over to the window display, squinting her eyes in the dark to get a better look at the item.
It was a very modest, but pretty pendant necklace with a tiny silver angel ornament as its centerpiece. The design was simple, but reminded her of a similar necklace her father once bought her.
"Dad?! Did you take something from my room again?!"
Fourteen-year-old Alina looked at the unruly mess of her desk. Normally she kept it neat and tidy so that it would be easier to find items, but today it looked like a storm had made a ruckus in her room. Paper, pencils, and erasers were thrown all out of place. Her stuffed animals were also littered about the floor alongside a couple of pillows.
"Oh you know, just looking for some useless stuff to sell," her father called back from the living room.
"So you just decided to barge in and take what you want? Did you find anything to your liking?" Alina clenched her fists, trying to hold onto every ounce of power not to shred her father to pieces. This was one of the few times he was allowed to visit her, as determined by the court custody battle.
"Just an old necklace, got a couple of bucks."
Alina rushed over to find her jewelry box among the mess. It took her a couple of minutes before she found it flipped over in the corner. She gingerly picked up the sprawled open purple jewelry box as tears threatened to spill when she realized which necklace was gone.
Alina chewed on her bottom lip as she filed through the box a second time. It was really gone...the necklace that her dad bought for her when she was 8. It was a small chain necklace that had a single ornament piece, a little girl holding a star in its hands.
To Alina, it was a remnant of time from before her dad's gambling days. Did he not remember that he was the one that gave that necklace to her? It was a Christmas present that she held close to her heart, hoping that someday he would snap out of his gambling addiction...back to his old familial caring self.
Well...I guess he won't ever change.
Alina snapped back to reality, her gaze still glued to the necklace on display from the thrift shop. She clasped her hands by her neck as she recalled the day she lost almost all her remaining respect for her father.
This Christmas would be different though, I'm away from New York...At least I won't have to deal with him anymore.
#1XD im very exahusted from writing but i still hoped you enjoyed it and big thks to my friend Cait for beta reading all this last minute
#2 according to cait, apparently when alina fell in the last chapter, she imagined Alina falling like a tradmark Hallmark romance movie and I laughed so hard bc when i wrote it, it was kinda like that but simply for the sake of 'show not tell'
#3 late happy holidays u guys 3
#4r yall into genshin nowadays? ive been addicted n it eats up so much of my time XD including my writing time
#5 loll if any of u guys have seen my ao3 account(savegirl), XD yes I did post the two chapters earlier there. just bc i was very tired n the formatting is different between ao3 and here.