AN: Android AU this time. Enjoy the sads.
Expendable
Again
"Inspector Yukine!"
It happened again
"I've been looking for you all over-"
She grimaced, tuning out the painfully familiar voice to her left with another glass, the burning sensation in her throat numbing her senses for a few sweet seconds before things became discomfortingly clear and she was forced back to reality with a groan as she looked to the left, taking in the concerned familiar face that even still haunted her sleep.
"-spector Yukine? My scans indicate that you might want to tone down the drinking. You seem to have had more than enough toni-"
"You died"
The silence that followed was deafening, the other woman's voice quieting as she closed her mouth with an audible click of her teeth. She said nothing more and Chris took that as her cue to take another drink, ignoring the troubling feeling of the woman- the android's- concerned look feeling like it was burning a hole through the side of her head. She set down her glass with an audible thunk on the counter, rubbing her forehead with her other hand to collect her thoughts.
"You died… again…" She repeated, turning a hard gaze towards the synthetic staring at her, ignoring the aching feeling in her chest at seeing those piercing blue eyes that looked so, so real staring back at her. They creased with worry, the android sighing as if she'd gone through this before. And they had, several times already. It never got any easier.
"Inspector Yukine, I thought you and I both understood this already. As an android, my life is considered secondary to yours. I'm expendable-" but even as she spoke, the android could already tell the reaction that she'd get, same as the other times, but the unsubtle curling of Chris' hands into a fist and the furrowing of her brow caught her off-guard as the detective smashed her fist into the counter hard enough to splinter it, knocking over a dozen bottles and glasses.
"BULLSHIT YOU ARE" She shouted, standing up to her full height, just coming short of being eye level with the taller woman's chin.
"YOU… ARE Not… expendable…" Her voice started strong, angry and indignant. But just as quick as she started to speak her eyes began to water, tears pricking the edges of he vision as she choked back a sob.
She leaned forward, the android- Tsubasa- reflexively catching her in her arms, awkwardly holding them out and hovering just short of wrapping around the shorter girl as she struggled to continue speaking.
"You… You aren't expendable…" She said between barely restrained sobs, tears falling down her cheeks despite her efforts to suppress them.
"Not to me… Not… to me…"
The words stirred something in Tsubasa, vague recollections of… feelings, emotions, something she couldn't comprehend as the shorter girl leaning into her chest began to cry in full. She tried to understand it, this urge to comfort her partner that came from somewhere deep, deep in her systems, but she couldn't. Not now, at least.
She instead settled on simply acting on that urge, finally wrapping her arms around the girl. Words left her mouth before she could think on them, words of comfort, of assurance, she didn't even know where they'd come from either but she decided to leave contemplating on that for another time.
What she did know was that what she was doing seemed to be working. While Chris' crying hadn't stopped, she still returned the hug, clutching to the back of Tsubasa's uniform like her life depended on it. Or, maybe, as if she were afraid that if she let go, Tsubasa would be gone the moment she did.
Alone with her in that dingy, backstreet bar, only the distorted tune of the faulty old jukebox accompanying Chris quiet sobs, Tsubasa listened to the girl repeating herself between hiccups and heaves, her hands subconsciously drawing circles on the shorter girl's back.
"Not to me… Not to me… Never… to me…"