"Thank goodness, we made it just in time." 9S says as the two hoist themselves onto the roof of the ballroom. Ever since witnessing their first sunset two days ago, the two have decided that they would make an effort to come out and see it every night. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing this."

"Me neither."

...

"Heh, A new start, huh? From what Ozpin told us, it's just going to be more of the same. An endless battle against an endless threat to humanity." 9S chuckles, a hint of exhaustion and sadness in his voice. "Who's to say things won't end up the same as before?"

"But things aren't the same."

"Huh?"

"Here, humanity is very much alive. Here, we... might have machines fighting with us, rather than against us. The technology is different... and- and we were given a choice, Nines."

"It wasn't much of a choice for us." 9S scoffs. Androids- especially YoRHa androids- are hardwired for battle. The emotion humans call love? They are made to experience it during battle. Even if YoRHa was a recent creation, that didn't change the fact that for millennia the sole purpose of android kind was essentially to fight the machines. In fact, sometimes suspec that the only reason we can experience emotions and are able to forge relationships is just to build up hate against machines when they ripped those away from us, a twisted scheme meant to keep us fighting.

Endless fighting. That's all they were meant for. All they would ever-

"But we WERE given a choice, Nines. We were given a real choice, a genuine offer to refuse to fight."

"Th- then why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you choose to keep fighting?"

"I-" 2B takes a quick breath. "It's because I was given a choice. And because he didn't seem to want to push us to fight. It seemed he wanted us to do the opposite."

After taking a moment to let it sink in, 2B continues. "Did you notice he went into great detail about what he would do for us if we chose not to fight?"

"... I- I didn't." 9S admits with a hint of shame.

"Well, I... I want to fight so that others can have that choice. Others who can choose to sit it out, where we couldn't."

"... That's... really thoughtful of you 2B." 9S lets out a soft chuckle. "I feel really silly right now. I didn't really stop to think about what that choice really meant." After a brief moment of silence, 9S starts to giggle, growing in intensity before it becomes full blown laughter.

"What is it?"

"He-he. It's not much. It's just... it feels like we've switched places. Like, here I am being the pragmatic and cold one, thinking that Ozpin's offer held no weight... I'm just realizing that I sounded like you did when we first met.

"... That would happen sometimes." 2B says with a forlorn look on her face.

"What do you mean?"

"Sometimes... when you were alive for long enough, you would... start to get like this... start to loose your cheery attitude... Sometimes you would start to hide it. Like you were in the cafeteria" 2B adds pointedly.

"You could tell?" he asks sheepishly.

"After enough times... yes. It became easy to tell. But sometimes... it was too hard for you to keep up the act. And when that happened... I felt like I had to... make up for it. At least... that's how I felt the first few times. It happened sooner and sooner the more I-"

"You don't have to finish that." 9S interrupts.

"..."

"You're doing it right now, aren't you? Pretending to be... more like I was?" 9S continues.

"No."

"Oh."

"Well, perhaps I might be. But it certainly doesn't feel like an act." 2B finishes as she looks him in the eye as she smiles. It's not a big one. But it's there. And it's genuine. 9S feels warm and happy just looking at it. But he doesn't return it.

"For the longest time, I... I would always have this empty feeling inside of me. Like something was missing- like I was forgetting something important. I- I still do, but, at least I know why." Every time I would get too close to the truth of Project YoRHa, Command would have 2B- or 2E, that is- kill me. Then they would roll back my memories to a time before I met her. "Knowing exactly what's missing makes that hollow feeling a lot easier to cope with..."

"Nines... I-"

"Was it you? I mean- was it ever not you?"

"... No. I-" 2B takes a deep breath to ground herself, "I couldn't bear the thought of someone else..."

"And you... never had a memory wipe like me, right?"

"No."

"I- I can't bring myself to be upset. At you, I mean. I'm still SO unbelievably pissed, just not at you. I... I know I should. I'm probably supposed to hate you for this. But I can't. Instead, I'm mad at the Commander, at YoRHa, at those stupid rules that forced you to kill me, at the monumental asshole who came up with the idea of creating us just to make everyone think Humanity was still alive. Instead, I'm thankful towards you. I think- It's probably because those memories aren't completely gone. Every single moment I spent with you is still here, in a way."

"Heh. It's funny."

"What is?"

"That's the exact reason I kept myself assigned to you. Because I knew I needed to keep those memories with you alive. No matter how painful it was, I still kept doing the same thing, over and over. I stayed hoping that one day, when it was all over, when we no longer had to kill over some stupid secrets: I could settle down with you. And tell you all the things you forgo- no, give back the memories I took from you."

"Well, we might not be settling down, but.. I still think this checks the other two boxes, right?"

"It guess it does."

"How about every night, when we come out to see the sunset, you tell share some of those memories with me?"

"That sounds great, Nines."

2B smiles, now a little wider. This time, 9S returns it.

.

.

A/N

Chapter 11 Folks. I have come to realize that my favorite chapters (And also the easiest to write) are ones where 2B and her boyfriend are doing things. So don't worry! Y'all WILL be seeing a whole lot more chapters of Nines and his girlfriend going out and doing things once Beacon Initiation is over. Maybe soon we'll see them go shopping for a T-Shirt? Ok, fine probably not soon, but rest assured, it WILL happen.)

Unfortunately, y'all, there is going to be quite a delay between now and next chapter. I have been spending more time with family, and Uni is starting next week. On top of that, It's getting really hard to write these early cannon interactions from another perspective. So instead, Next chapter will be following Blake, then Yang. After that, we are starting the Emerald Forest thing. So basically, back to ignoring the main cast, lol.

It also doesn't help that I like to have a backlog of chapters. It makes me feel comfy and productive, ok? However, I have reached the end of the chapter buffer.

In other news, I finally got my AO3 invite! so you can read this there as well if you wish.

Also, I would very much appreciate any feedback you give me. What I'm doing well, what I'm not, what direction you want the story to take, perhaps what you think will happen next. This is the first ever fic I'm writing, let alone publishing, after all, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback, and that's underselling it.