"What?"

2B stared down at him blankly, completely at a loss.

"I found what looked like the beginnings of a base personality; a proto motherboard cobbled together from your code and mine."

"My code?" she echoed. "How and why do you have my code?"

"Well when two androids love each other very much…"

She shoved him gently, snorting a laugh. "Really?"

"Yeah. I don't know how else it could have got there."

"Huh." She seemed nonplussed. "Have you ever heard of this happening to any other S-models?"

Carefully, he shook his head and regretted it almost instantly. "No. I don't know if that's because its never happened, no one reported it, I've had my memories wiped too often to remember something like that, or we're just weird because of all the shit we've been through."

She nodded thoughtfully, expression troubled. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Is what good or bad?"

"You. Carrying that extra code. That's what was causing your system to overload, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I dunno what else it could be."

"Can you delete it?"

He couldn't help wincing at that. "Do you want me to?"

Her expression cracked, guarded disbelief softening into concern. "I want you to be functional."

"I am."

"I don't want you to be in pain."

"I think if I tweak my chipset some more, I can work around it."

"...do you want to leave it there?"

9S contemplated their clasped hands for a long moment. "I don't know. I wanted to ask you before I did anything. Sure, I could delete it. I'd also probably have to set an automatic wipe for every time we...you know...to keep any extra code from building up."

"And if you don't?"

"I have reason to think that eventually there would be enough to download to a whole new android."

"YoRHa's gone," she reminded him. "There are no other androids, just those here on earth."

"Yeah, but there's still plenty of android bodies lying around."

She was staring at him in disbelief. "You've thought about this."

"Not really. Not yet. But I can think of a couple of solutions off the top of my head." Somehow, it felt like he was being scolded. He fully expected a dressing down, for her to tell him he was being sentimental and stupid. What the hell would they do with a child? Providing the aforementioned speculations proved true, and they'd have no way to find out until it happened. Or, yanno, not.

"You really want it?"

9S looked up, forcing himself to meet her eyes. "I don't want to lose any part of you. Not any. The war's over. Earth isn't the same as it was before. I want to… I'd like to… Would...would you be okay if….?"

Unexpectedly, 2B pulled him into a hug. "I don't want you to suffer, to be hurt. I can't lose you again."

"It's not gonna make my head explode, Bea," he said, hugging her back. She was always the strong one, the least he could do was try to provide comfort when she needed it. "Yeah I'll probably have migraines off and on until it's big enough to upload to another body, but it's not like I'm gonna die in childbirth or anything."

"But your processor. Your cooling system."

"It'll just mean less running around. It wouldn't kill us to dial it back a little. The war's over. We have all the time in the world."

"I suppose," she drawled, leaning her chin on his shoulder. "I just want you to be safe."

"Hey, with you to protect me, how could I not be?"

He could almost feel her sardonic smile. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

9S chuckled. "No, but it made you smile."

"It did." Turning her head, she kissed his cheek. "You want this."

It wasn't a question. Sometimes he wondered if some of him hadn't rubbed off on her. She always seemed to know what he was thinking or feeling. Who knew? Maybe she carried little strands of his code as well. He could check. Maybe he just had a lousy poker face. Pulling back, he searched her face, trying to read her without scanning.

"I...didn't want to do anything without asking you first. I wanted to see what you thought."

"But you want to keep it."

He couldn't help flinching away; bracing himself for the reprimand that was surely coming.

"Only if you're ready to be a mom."

"Wouldn't you be the mother? You're the one who's carrying it."

That made him laugh. "I guess. I mean, I'm only male-shaped. Not like androids really have gender."

She seemed amused. "Tell me what you want, Nines. Please."

Leaning back on the pillows, he took a deep breath. "This is in no way shape or form a good idea but… I want to see what happens. I want to try. I want to keep it. I'd like to keep it. It's part of you."

Her expression softened and she leaned to kiss him.

"It's part of you too, so we're keeping it. I don't want to lose any part of you either."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Think you're ready to be a dad?"

That made her laugh and 9S smiled.

"I guess we'll find out."

She lay down next to him, smiling, and kissed his cheek. "You said it's incomplete. How much do you think it would take to finish it?"

He tried to run the calculations but soon gave up. "I dunno. I'd have to study it some more. There's too many unknown variables. It would definitely take more code than what it's got now before it could be successfully extracted and uploaded to a new body."

"Well then," her grin had taken on a mischievous edge, "guess we'd better get to work."