#Zain Othman ily ur so slay for getting ur dad game

[scho17]

Jalim DBH AU

Jason, a battle bot who's become just a little too conscious about what he's been told do - the woman with the groceries - he doesn't shoot - they flag him down as possibly faulty and then after that they're just looking for any reason to shoot Jason down into a junkyard. Maybe they send him on an op, practically a suicide run for anyone else and damnit its suicide for him too even if he don't completely realize it.

He gets damaged. Not no easy fix, not no little scratch he's - well fuck, he's busted. Some part of him in a near constant short circuit. Fried. It makes him forgetful of what he's done and why he's done it. They don't attenpt to fix him or his memory problem, they dont even wipe it out, they ain't got to. He won't be their problem much longer. They pop his back plate open and slip out his power core. They didn't even have the decency to tell him.

Jason gets discharged. Retired. However they wanna spin it but all the same they boot him to the curb.

They sell him as is. Auctioning him off and if Jason could understand what the hell he was feeling maybe he'd call it relief. Or maybe its betrayal. He doesn't really know yet.

Anyhow, he ends up on Salim's slab. Salim is a tinkerer of sorts, does repairs for a living and Jason seems intriguing. Military models are never really available for the public market and most are just destroyed or are too damaged to take on. Some wealthy folk like to keep fixed up ones as body guards and with any luck the model Salim's just bought will be a bang for his buck.

yada yada yada, that doesnt really happen. The second Jason comes online again with the help of a new power core its like waking from a nightmare and if he were anything alive his hackles would raise, sweat sticking his hair to his forehead and his breath would leave his chest heaving. But he isn't. All the same fight or flight gets activated. He's practically snarling like a wild dog, he's in a unfamiliar layout in a new place with what ought to be a graveyard of android parts.

and Salim really does his best to help - to explain. Which maybe this is weirder on his end cause 'good god this android is actually reacting and oh god am I going to die here? stupid auction'. it's kinda funny from an outside view and also kinda not.

Jason calms down enough and then boom 'nother short circuit. It makes him draw a blank. Forgets what happened in the past 5 to 15 minutes. Salim really didn't anticipate this. How could he? They go through the motions again, introductions, some part of Jason has realized that Salim isn't a threat, so at least this time they're meetings not as hostile.

Salim wants to understand Jason - he's some type of conscious and he's got his issues. they end up as some sorta flatmates. idk maybe we get a whole domestic Jason w memory issues arc. its kinda cute, really sad sometimes because he doesnt understand whats happening to him or why. Just that the very reason for his lifes purpose ain't in his grasp no more. He feels kind of pathetic somedays, becomes more of a homemaker than a soldier. Salim says it isn't bad. it's- it's not.

Maybe he picks up hobbies, starts reading, learning of the world he's missed out on. How the moral ideals of the masses clash with the values that were instilled in him. fucking cable TV. its kinda funny, kinda not.

Salim fixes him up. The memories come back in nightmares while he's booted down. Memory files drawn to the front of his mind all corrupted. It takes a long while for Jason to be alright. Salim worrys, notices him - of all things - stress baking. Jason talks about Nana Kolchek and her recipies and they both know she don't really exist. That it's part of the program they built into Jason to help him seem more human, more relatable to other soldiers. They don't talk about that aspect of it.

At some point Jason realizes Salim is going to sell him. Or at least intended to when he was bought at the auction. It hits him like a humvee going 80. Has a whole "was any of it ever real?" moment.

Jason has a little crisis and still somehow can't really unconvince himself that it won't happen. So he rips the bandaid off and flat out asks. Salim looks at him with that kind of expression people save for kicked puppies and the like. Some type of emotion in his eyes that Jason just doesn't know how to understand. It's too much. Jason looks away with a frown.

Salim pulls his hand into Jason's and squeezes once, cold metal against warm skin. Salim isn't selling Jason.

Heart to Heart.

Eventually Jason meets Zain. Zain looks at him quizzically, like he's just tryna wrap his head around something and he just dont quite get it. Zain says that his dad talks about him a lot, that he seems happier, less lonely, gives Jason the shovel talk. The works. Which Jason thinks is bizzare because he isn't even romantically involved with Salim.

and then he thinks,

thinks on it real hard and

oh,

oh.

He might be.

Right then and there, it dawns on Jason that, yes, they've been practically dating for a long while now. He cooks, cleans, asks Salim about his day, nags when he leaves his shoes crowded and piled in the door way, notes his likes and dislikes, holds him when he needs it, takes care of him and vice versa, they hook their legs together underneath the dinner table, they even do that looking into eachothers eyes lovingly thing and he just didn't realize thats what it was.

Zain is delighted with Jason's new found revelation. He helps Jason get flowers and chocolates, even gets a little card, it's real cute.

And Jason for as much as you'd think him as level headed really isn't too good at keeping a cool on it. He's flustered. Hands over the sweets, flowers and card like a kid with his first crush and shit, yeah, in a way yes, thats exactly what this is. a little bit. its kinda funny. kinda. There's even music on in the background because Jason just doesn't know how to miss.

They kiss. Salim tastes like chocolate.