#he and Fowler sit and eat popcorn in his office while Connor makes a fool of himself

[veilder]

Hello hello, Happy Tuesday and Happy Valentine's Day(yesterday lol), everyone! In the spirit of the holidays, I bring you the quintessential plot of a romcon for this week's prompt, lol! And, since I was kinda feeling it, I actually more-or-less wrote out the opener for it based on the initial prompt. So this is sort of a hybrid prompt/oneshot, lol. Lemme know if it works for y'all. XD

Prompt: The digital magazine cover somehow manages to look cheap and glossy, oversized words proclaiming diet tips and the latest scandals and "10 Ways to Tell if He's Into You." It has no business being downloaded to the Detroit Central Station servers. No business being on Connor's computer. And definitely no business being studied with intensity by said android. And yet... Connor looks up, glancing across the bullpen to where Gavin Reed sits, balancing a pen on his nose and making an effort to go cross-eyed. His feet are kicked up on his desk, chair leaned dangerously far back, not a care in the world despite the unfinished case report Connor sees on his monitor. The man looks absolutely ridiculous, decidedly unprofessional, and-- Connor feels his logic matrices slow, feels his Thirium pump judder, feels a screenshot being saved and preserved automatically, filed along with countless others in a folder marked specifically for this disaster of a human who'd so thoroughly caught his interest. And he knows what this means, understand this infatuation for what it is, but even still... Even with his state-of-the-art processors, Connor cannot discern how to approach this situation. He is at an impasse, straining over this dilemma any time he's in Gavin's presence (and sometime even when the human is absent, too). But he has no protocols for this. No standards for attempting to start a relationship with the co-worker you once knocked unconscious on the evidence room floor. Connor needs mission parameters--guidelines!--some set of rules he can apply to his system in lieu of experience. Hence the magazine. Hence the helpfully-numbered articles. Hence the way Connor's analytical systems are working overtime, dissecting each bulleted point in the hopes that some form of compatibility between them will show. And he hopes--oh, how he hopes!--for a match, that Gavin has shown some signs of interest in him, too. That Connor's feelings are not one-sided and doomed to fail. Across the bullpen, he hears Gavin laugh. Quickly, he turns to stare again, hoping to add yet another smile to his ever-growing collection. But the sight that greets him leaves him feeling somewhat... cold. Uneasy. Discontented. Gavin has settle back down into his chair like a reputable member of society now, pen long-since fallen underneath his desk. He's turned to smile up at his partner, Connor's younger brother, Nines. "Took you long enough, Hot Shot. What, get lost in the archives?" Nines sniffs haughtily, slapping down a thick folder on Gavin's tidy desk. "Hardly, Detective. I merely had to make sure there were enough pictures to keep your interest." Gavin scowls. "Oh, hardy-har, Nines. You're just a hoot." He slaps the desk for emphasis, causing several people to look over at them. (Seeing it's only Gavin though, they return to their own projects without comment.) Nines raises an eyebrow. "I am heartened to hear you practicing your animal noises, Gavin. Perhaps one day, you might graduate to more intensive pursuits. Like color names. Or counting to ten." They continue their banter for several more minutes before they finally settle in to scour the file together, heads practically touching as they read through case notes. Nines is bent almost in half, his hand casually resting on Gavin's shoulder to steady himself. Connor stares, a peculiar feeling in his chassis, until his analysis program delivers its conclusions. IDEAL MATCH ACCORDING TO CRITERIA: RK900 Or, the one where Connor takes some shitty glam magazine advice as gospel, draws some terribly erroneous conclusions from it, and acts as a terribly awkward matchmaker for his friend and brother who he just wants to be happy. Add in lots of emotional angst as he ends up interacting with them both more and realizes just how deep his feelings have become for Gavin. But he's not gonna compromise the happiness of two of his most important people because of his petty whims. He'll get them to admit their feelings for each other or die trying. ...Too bad no one told him that those feelings

are purely platonic. And he’s frustrating the living hell out a certain detective who’s been trying to catch his attention. (And his bro who saw this coming from a mile away, lol.)

So yeah, there we have it, this terrible, romcom-esque premise. What can I say? I love seeing Connor in these situations, omg. XD But damn, good luck trying to stop him once he sets his mind to something, lol! Connor has the power of terrible magazine advice plus his full arsenal of RK800 tricks, lol. Gavin and Nines are going to suffer through this. XD