#and one day Gavin wouldn't come home and he would deviate to go search for him

[fandom-necromancer]

1166+ 1154.  “Do you think I'm ashamed of my interest in you?” “I thought you didn’t want me.”

This was prompted by the wonderful @anxiousmessofaperson! Thank you for being this patient, I like this story far more than the other one I wrote. Enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

‘Nines, why do you keep doing this?’, Connor asked, reinserting a bolt to his lower arm and taking to the torn cables next. Nines watched him in silence. ‘I mean, what did Reed ever do to you that deserves this loyalty? He repeatedly says he hates androids, that he doesn’t need you, that he would be better off alone. He even tried to trash you once!’ ‘I know’, the RK900 whispered. ‘And still you stay with him. Why?’ ‘I’m his partner.’ ‘That’s no explanation!’

‘I know.’ Nines repeated. ‘God, Nines, I don’t understand you. I can only repeat over and over again, that I’m here for you. Just say the word.’ ‘Thank you, Connor.’ Nines didn’t understand it either. Connor was right: Gavin hated androids. And he used every chance he could get to show him. Still, Nines stayed. He truly didn’t know why.

Connor worked on his arm in silence, then gently allowed the hull pieces to slip back into place. ‘There. As good as I can fix it. You should really let yourself be looked over sometime.’ ‘I will’, Nines promised without planning on actually doing it.

The android walked back to his desk, pulling down his sleeve again and putting on his jacket. ‘And? Did the plastic put a band aid on your booboo and kissed it alright?’, Gavin laughed from the other side as he sat down. Nines didn’t answer and interfaced with his terminal to download any new data. ‘Hey, answer me, tin-can!’ Nines still remained silent. Until the man stood up, walked around to sit on his desk and cup his cheek. ‘Oh, did I do something wrong, toaster?’ Nines pressed his eyes shut as if the contact hurt and froze all over. ‘Remove your hand’, he demanded forcing his voice to stay calm and collected. ‘Aww, and what if not?’, the human teased and had the audacity to brush his thumb against his skin and squeeze a little. Nines’ lips quivered in anger and he grabbed the man’s wrist with just a little too much force. ‘I said: remove your hand.’ ‘Hell, okay, fine. Phcking androids.’ As Nines let go Gavin pulled his arm back holding his wrist. ‘Goddamn android doesn’t know his place’, Gavin muttered as he walked back to his chair. ‘You do know I didn’t want you, right? I don’t need you and I never will. You should watch your back or something like that arm may happen again.’

Nines looked up at the human. That… That wasn’t true, right? His arm had been mangled by the door being closed on him by the criminal. Gavin couldn’t be the one responsible for that, could he? The Detective smirked. ‘I could have pulled you further back, just saying. If you want my help, work for it.’ The android shook his head and retracted his hand from the terminal. ‘Detective, I won’t put up with any more of your harassment and I expect you to have my back just as much as I have yours.’ ‘Yeah, right, why should I care for a damn tin-can?’ ‘Why should I care for a mere human? I don’t need you either, Reed. But I still would like to keep you as my partner as you are competent, and I don’t want to have your death on my file.’ ‘Wow. Makes you feel real welcome.’ ‘Then you know how it feels’, Nines said deadpan. ‘The Captain wants to speak us.’ The android stood up and walked up to the glass cube, Gavin staring at him disbelievingly and then following him.

‘Reed, Nines? I have a new mission for you. We need people undercover in the Red Circle. You two have been investigating them for over three months now. I think you are the most qualified to do it. Gavin, you will be a driver for them. You will find out their different locations and report to us. Nines, you are an android send from a rival gang, the Hawks, that plans to merge with the Red Circle. Gavin is supposed to be from your gang as a sign of good will. More information will be in your files. I expect you two to work together. I don’t need any more “accidents” or fights between you two. You will meet with them tomorrow. Any questions?’ ‘No, Sir’, Nines reported, and Gavin kept silent. ‘Gavin?’ ‘Hmm? Yeah, sure, fine. Can we go now?’ ‘Of course. Dismissed.’

‘Hey, tin-can? I would like to talk to you in private for a moment’, Gavin spoke up as soon as they were outside the building the next day, Gavin in casual clothing and Nines looking smarter. ‘Of course. What is it, Gavin?’ The man looked around for anyone that might see them, then took the android by the lapels and pushed him hard against the brick wall. ‘Listen here, droid, if you use this as a way to get your revenge, I will kill you. Fowler and the mission be damned, if you use your position as some way to pay me back, I will kill you. I can do worse than allow harm to get to you.’

Nines made a show of rolling his eyes. ‘Gavin, you may have forgotten, but I’m not you!’ He pushed his hands against the man’s chest and send him staggering backwards. ‘I don’t try to make this a living hell for everyone that isn’t me. And I agree. Fowler and the mission be damned. But my condition is that I will make sure we both get out of there alive if things go wrong. Because that’s what partners are supposed to be!’ ‘Are you saying I am incompetent?’ ‘Yes! Yes, that’s what I’m saying. You are incompetent to work with other people. It wouldn’t hurt you to look out for others or maybe, just maybe, actually help them!’ ‘Oh, so that’s what it’s all about! I thought you were Cyberlife’s best. Since when do you need help?’ ‘Gavin. Fuck off. I don’t need your help, but it would be nice to have it. Any idiot would understand that, but apparently to you it’s quantum physics or something. Let’s just get going. I acknowledged your threat and chose to disregard it, okay? I won’t change you anyways.’ ‘Damn right.’

They drove up to the factory they had watched for the last months, telling the armed guard disguised as a worker their story and the secret word to be granted entry and they were past the gate. They were greeted by a few other guards in disguise, telling them to exit the car and follow them to the boss. Nines was sure to scan every last one of them and send the identifications back to the DPD as soon as it had compiled.

They were led through the factory hall that was converted into a small chemistry plant. The factory was filled with tanks, pipes and strainers. Industrially produced drugs in a building everyone knew had been abandoned long time ago and never found another owner. Everyone knew there were illegal activities taking place under this roof, but no one could get a grip on them. Whenever they had enough material and evidence to act, they had moved their whole equipment to another place. This might just be their chance of finally setting an end to the Red Circle.

Up a final ladder to an overhanging office, they stood before the boss of the Gang. Frederick Burton, a chemical engineer, who lost his job in 2036 due to alcoholism. He didn’t look like it now. Maybe he even was clean again. Nines couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that the man in front of him looked like the most ordinary, easiest to miss person he had ever seen. Definitely no one you expected to be the leader of a gang that had a firm grip on half of Detroit.

As soon as they entered, the man stood from his chair and opened his arms in a jovial gesture. ‘Ah! You must be Richard and Jared Clark! The Red Circle welcomes you and I hoe you had a pleasant journey over here?’ Nines threw him a smile. ‘We had, Mr. Burton. We hope there will be a bright future for our both… companies.’ The gang boss laughed. ‘Oh, directly to business? Where has the time for pleasantries gone, I wonder…’ ‘Pleasantries don’t make money’, Nines said confidently. He was playing a bigwig in the Hawks after all, he had to keep in character. ‘Yeah, true’, the man nodded. ‘A shame money is everything that counts, nowadays, huh? Loyalty, Friendship, a gang you can trust…’ ‘I assure you the Hawks are to be trusted. We wouldn’t be showing our faces to you if we didn’t mean what we said. It is in the best interest for our gang to merge with yours. The police are already pressuring us, and we need the safety you can guarantee. In turn we offer you our labs and loyalty.’

‘Yes, the Hawks are to be trusted’, the gang boss said wandering behind his desk. ‘And the police really are sneaky bastards.’ He waved the guards behind Nines and Gavin and they closed the door. The android kept calm, but a quick scan showed Gavin’s hand were sweaty and his breath just a bit faster than normally. ‘That’s why I wonder why the Hawks send us new people to negotiate when they merged with us a week ago. And why two people who didn’t exist before and the Hawks don’t know show up just after we threatened a secret informant for the DPD into spreading false information. It may be that the only RK900 ever that is a Detective at the 5th precinct and the only Detective that could have made it Captain, but has far too many disciplinaries to ever make it Lieutenant, have heard of that very information and decided to go undercover for a bit? A shame that didn’t work, huh?’

Nines was ready to activate his whole arsenal of tactical routines but kept calm. So, they had been unveiled. It had been a trap all along. That was fine, shit happened. They could still get out of here alive and report to Fowler. In fact, they could do that right now. Nines huffed and dropped his stance, seemingly the most relaxed person in the room. ‘You did your research, so much is-‘ He had wanted to play on time, to keep smug till the very end and provoke a fight they could use as a distraction to run. But from one moment to the next every system of his was about to be fried. An overwhelming signal flooded his sensors. He saw white, heard nothing but static, smelled and tasted everything at once and felt as if he was burning. His transmission to Fowler and the call for backup was overlapped by the same attack. A scrambler. More advanced, but still primitive technology. It did the trick though and Nines dropped to the floor, unable to move or send any signal to his body. It may as well had been an EMP, as much as it interfered with his systems. His only chance at survival was to enter stasis, being completely vulnerable to anything happening to his body. ‘Goodnight Nines.’ Strangely enough, his last thought before entering stasis was Gavin.

-

He booted back up to a flurry of warnings and damage reports. He set his filters to only vital information and was met with his legs compromised but still working good enough to walk on, his left arm missing, and his hull damaged in multiple areas. The scrambler had brought disorder to his software, even deleted a few addresses and access to a few programs. But his scanner was still active and unharmed. He was lying in a landfill outside of Detroit. It had been used by Cyberlife to dumb androids once. A logical place to dispose of an android. He sat up, looking around. He hadn’t been alone during the attack…

‘Gavin!’ He shouted it across the landfill not thinking about the consequences should someone hear him. ‘Gavin? Are you here?’ He scanned for human life signs while standing up. ‘Gavin, please!’ ‘Nine…’ It was weak and very quiet, but Nines picked it up. He was at his feet in a heartbeat and tried to get over to where the sound came from. ‘Gavin? Gavin, talk to me!’ ‘Plashh’ He was interrupted by a cough, but the shaking floor gave him away. Nines quickly sunk to his knees and pulled away the rusted android bodies from the spot. He had to dig through the android corpses to finally reach Gavin and pull him out. He had been buried by the mass of metal and plastic and was finally able to breath lighter. He was badly bruised and had at least one broken rib. ‘Can you walk?’, Nines asked. ‘I think so…’, Gavin answered coughing after every laboured word. The android didn’t hesitate to pull an arm around the man and help him up. ‘Wha- What are you doing?’ ‘Getting us out of here, idiot.’ ‘Why… are you helping me? Why not… leave me behind?’ ‘You talk too much’, Nines refused to answer. He didn’t know for sure either. It was the right thing to do, but after what pain Gavin had put him through maybe he should use the opportunity to get rid of- no. No, he wasn’t like that. He would get them both out of there alive. ‘Must be something wrong with your programming, tin-can’, Gavin laughed through the cough. ‘You taking interest in the well-being of someone who hurt you so much. Maybe a bit masochistic, don’t you think? Must be phcking embarrassing.’

Nines sighed, half carrying the human over the landfill to the next street to find a passer-by who could call them an ambulance. ‘Do you think I'm ashamed of my interest in you? In my wish to care for someone and be cared for in return? That is something so utterly human and you are apparently lacking it.’ ‘Because it’s useless. You will never be cared for.’ ‘Then what is this right now?’, Nines asked, sounding exhausted. His legs were not happy about the added weight. ‘That’s what I’m asking myself. What do you think you get out of this?’ ‘I hope that if I just keep this up, you will finally realise you don’t have to work against me not to be hurt. Because I will stay with you. I will help you. My willingness to put up with you after everything you did to me should be evidence enough.’ ‘Heh, you just want to get some friendship out of this?’ ‘Yes. Is that so difficult to understand?’ ‘You have no idea, Nines. Honest people are phcking rare. Normally they just search for a way to get to know your secrets and use them against you.’ ‘I do not, Gavin’, he sighed, repositioning Gavin’s arm that had slipped a bit. ‘I hope one day you realise that.

They came to the street and Nines looked out for someone to ask for their phone. His connection to the android network had been disconnected by the scrambler. There was no one around, but he found an old payphone he could make a call with. Then he helped Gavin settle against the phone while they waited for the ambulance.

‘Will you come with me?’, Gavin asked silently. ‘I thought you didn’t want me’, Nines teased gently. ‘Shut up. I still don’t want you. But I may have realised I need you.’ ‘Of course I will stay with you Gavin.’

[cyber-phobia]

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