Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

THE MISPLACED PIANO
9.47AM

“It’s been seven days since our last nonsense,” Tina declared, raising his glass, “a new record!”

Gavin whooped and clinked his glass against hers, throwing Connor a wink when the android joined in with his own small glass of thirium; Chris rose his own glass warily, arching a brow at Tina.

“What was our last nonsense?” he asked, squinting at her slightly, “‘cause seven days is pretty good for us.”

“Oh shit,” Tina exclaimed, snapping her fingers, “you weren’t there.” She snorted and roughly nudged Gavin’s shoulder with her own. “This sad boy rang me to cry about losing Marco, which was justified, I get it, but then… ho-oly shit. It descended into him crying because Nines told him that he liked him – but just as a friend, so don't get too excited – and he just ran away without saying it back and ‘see T, this is why I’m supposed to die with cats and not pretty-face android boys who make my heart go—'”

“I swear, if you say doki doki,” Gavin snarled, interrupting her with a sour expression.

“Whatever, you get the point,” Tina snorted, waving her martini in Chris’ face, “he’s drowning in denial and still mad ‘cause I’m the only one putting in the work for his relationship!”

Gavin eyed her sourly over the rim of his cocktail glass – it was his seventh drink so far and probably his last too, as he could see the concerned glances Chris kept shooting him from the corner of his eye. Understandable, considering he had an early start the next day; Nines had informed him that he was going to pick him up and drive them up to the Whispering Waters retreat, which was all good and fine, until the android told him to be ready for 4.30a-fucking-m.

A whole fucking hour before his usual alarm goes off, but goddammit, that last hour was fucking integral to his beauty sleep.

“T,” Gavin said, wiping his wet lips with the back of his hand, “T… Tina… do me a favour, yeah? Do me a favour? Okay?” Tina nodded with a suspicious gleam in her eyes – Gavin grinned, sharp and unkind. “Cool: shut up.”

Tina shoved him hard, scowling.

“Look, at the rate you’re going, you’ve got a better chance of climbing into bed with Fowler—” Chris spluttered on his drink and even Connor wrinkled his nose at the mental image, “—than gettin’ down and dirty with Nines – let me help you, you actual goddamn sloth of a human.”

Gavin kicked her under the table.

Tina yelped and kicked him back.

“Children,” Chris sighed, tapping his glass impatiently, “we’ve talked about this. Tina, leave Gavin alone and let him sort his own mess out at his own pace.” Gavin stuck his tongue out at Tina. “Gavin, please know that, despite her questionable methods, Tina’s being a menace because she cares. And because we’ll all probably die and fossilise before you and Nines get anywhere.” Tina snorted and pulled a face at Gavin.

“Except Connor,” she pointed out, gesturing to the android with a sad pout, “he won’t fossilise, he’ll just be stuck, watching you two dance around your dumb relationship for the rest of eternity, and do you really want to put him through that—"

“I would not like to experience that,” Connor interjected lightly.

“—do you Gavin?” Tina demanded, her tone getting more heated than was warranted.

Gavin eyed her steadily.

“Yes,” he answered easily, snorting when she batted at him with both hands, “come on, T. We ain’t dancing around shit – he’s got no concept of fucking free will and he doesn’t want to fucking feel anyway… how the fuck can I even date someone like that?”

“Nines does have free will,” Connor insisted, furrowing his brows, “or at least, he has a thorough understanding of it. He also does experience rudimentary emotions, he just—”

“Connor, Connor, Connor,” Gavin chanted warily, shaking his head, “that’s all well and good, but you forgot one incredibly important detail.”

“Which… is?”

“If Nines has free will and feelings, then why the fuck would he like me?”

Tina threw her head back and groaned loudly, ignoring the curious glances she received from the patrons around here.

“Nope,” Chris declared swiftly, slamming his glass on the table with an air of finality, “we are not doing this shit, not again. Subject change, I demand a subject change.”

Connor cocked his head and took the opening presented to him.

“Who’s looking after your cats in your absence?” he asked, tracing the rim of his glass with a finger. The bar had somehow found a way to make carbonated thirium – the fizzing sensation delighted Connor, which in turn delighted Tina who then bought him five glasses just to see his LED wildly flash when he drank the stuff. “Because I noticed you had not asked me.”

His delicate tone did nothing to hide how betrayed he felt.

Gavin rolled his eyes and knew that if he could roll them any harder, they would most likely fall outta his head.

“Tina asked me first,” he explained plainly, “should’ve been quicker robo-boy.”

Connor frowned.

“It’s okay Bambi,” Tina cooed, batting her lashes at him, “you can come visit with me and Shannon.” Connor’s eyes lit up, his blue LED spinning steadily by his temple. “And I know where all his baby photos are kept! And his narwhale plushie! Oh, oh, oh! I’ll even show you the secret box under his be—”

“Do not make me ask Mrs McKinley, you know I will,” Gavin hissed, interrupting her quickly.

Tina pouted and poked at him. “But she’s so mean and grumpy. She doesn’t even know your cats’ names and I guarantee she won’t even talk to them!”

“Then behave,” Gavin sassed her, “otherwise you won’t get to babysit my cats and they will die from isolation and neglect, and it will be all your fault.”

“Your threat would work better if had some weight behind it,” Chris snorted, sipping at his sparkling cider, “you love those cats more than yourself.”

“Yeah, like that’s hard,” Gavin said, wincing when Tina kicked him again.

“Can we count that as a shitty comment?” she asked delicately.

“Oh yeah, that’s the shittiest of comments,” Chris agreed gravely, “probably amounts to three shitty comments in one go.”

Connor shook his head gravely. “Sorry Gavin, but this is a self-deprecation free zone,” he stated, a small smile flickering across his face when Tina nodded eagerly, “though you were difficult and rather unlikable at first, you have become an increasingly endearing presence in my life, and I am glad to have you around.”

Gavin stared at Connor in disbelief.

“Okay,” he said slowly, “sounds like a lie, but okay.”

“Gavin behave!” Tina demanded, slamming her glass down, “I call for a subject change!”

“Agreed,” Chris piped up tiredly, gazing at Gavin with clear concern in his eyes. Gavin merely rolled his eyes and shrugged, making a mental note to text Kate with clear instructions to wrap Chris up in several blankets and then kiss him at least seven times.

At least.

“Okay, what about this… how nervous are you about your next case?” Tina asked, playing with the umbrella in her drink. Gavin watched her and hummed softly as he mulled over her question.

“Like, this much,” he said, and held up two fingers about an inch apart. He then narrowed his eyes and shook his head, before holding his hands roughly one foot apart, “nope, this much.”

“Interesting,” Chris noted dryly, “does Nines know how nervous you are about this case?”

“Absolutely fucking not,” Gavin scoffed, “why the hell would I tell him that? It would fuck up the whole… dynamic thing we got goin’ on and make shit just fuckin’ weird. I ain’t gonna tell him I’m goddamn ‘nervous’ before I gotta spend the next, shit, fuck knows how many days, in the same room as him!” He took a long mouthful of his drink – the silence that ensued was tense and he could almost feel the scrutiny he was under. Gavin slammed his glass down and caught sight of Connor’s concerned gaze – he sighed and threw up his hands.

“Listen Care Bear, I—”

“Oh my god,” Tina suddenly gasped, her eyes wide with joy, “oh my god. Did you just hear what you just said?”

Gavin wrinkled his nose and reflected on his rant – he inwardly cursed himself immediately when he realised what Tina was talking about.

“Don’t,” he warned, his tone bordering on pained.

“Oh,” Tina repeated, “my god.”

She turned to Chris and started batting at his shoulder.

“Don’t you dare,” Gavin hissed insistently.

“Chris, Chris, Chris,” Tina chanted, her eyes sparkling as Chris captured her hands. Gavin moaned and slid a hand across his face; he swung his leg at her under the table and winced when her responding kick caught him on the ankle.

“Tina, what the heck?” Chris asked, holding tight onto her erratic limbs.

“And they were roommates,” she whispered gleefully.

Chris’ eyes widened.

“Oh my god,” he replied in a similar hushed tone, “they were roommates.”

Gavin groaned loudly and his head thudded soundly against the table.

“I’m divorcing you both,” he muttered sulkily, “literally. I hate you; I am never speaking either of you again.”

Tina and Chris chortled together – Gavin twisted his head on the table until he could peer at Connor with narrow eyes. The android had tilted his head and his LED was spinning yellow; Gavin inwardly cursed because he knew that Connor was looking up the reference.

“You’re corrupting him,” Gavin moaned loudly, reaching over to flick Connor’s LED, “get off the web! Vine died a long-ass time ago, leave it the fuck alone!”

Connor shrugged helplessly, a slight crease forming between his brows. “I can’t stop. They just keep… playing, one after the other. How… how are humans so good and yet simultaneously so bad at telling a story in six seconds?”

“It’s a gift,” Tina commented solemnly, nodding her head.

“Hank lied to me – he said he invented the word ‘yeet’!” Connor said, frowning, before his eyes widened, “the waffle-thing too? Is everything he says to me a lie?”

Tina snorted. “Those aren’t even the best ones!” she declared, before rolling up a napkin and then brandishing it at Chris, “look Chris, it’s the good kush!”

Chris shook his head but couldn’t repress the soft chuckle that escaped him. “This is the dollar store,” he obediently recited, “how good can it be?”

They snickered between themselves and Gavin could only shake his head, truly disappointed. He turned to Connor and scowled at the sight of the glowing yellow LED. He reached over and roughly prodded Connor between the eyebrows, unfazed by the glare he gained in return.

“Are you still watching Vines?” he asked, a touch dismayed.

“I am actually enjoying these videos,” Connor admitted with a small smile, “some of them are quite amusing. Now I know why Tina keeps singing ‘two bros chillin’ in a hot tub, five feet apart, ‘cause they’re not gay’ whenever she comes across you and Nines staring at each other in the precinct.”

Gavin blinked at Connor’s creepy imitation of Tina’s voice. “Holy shit, what the fuck,” he muttered softly, palming his face. He slid his hand down his face and stared contemplatively at the android – he sighed and scooted closer. “Fuck it, if you’re gonna do this, you gotta do it properly and use your newfound knowledge for evil and evil only.”

“You want me to irritate Hank.”

“I want you to irritate the fuck outta Hank,” Gavin agreed easily, “so, here’s some homework for you. You’re gonna look up Patrick William Charlton, okay? The Sassy Nazi video especially – yeah, the name is pretty dire, but you gotta watch it and then use it against every fucking perp you can. Make sure Hank can hear you when you say that shit. Record his expression and send it to me, that bit is important, Connor, do you understand, that shit is especially fucking important, do not forget it! Also, Left in London, she’s fucking hilarious – literally, every video, watch ‘em, memorise ‘em, use that shit against Hank! Send me his fucking face! Tell him: Gavin says, ‘fuck you’!”

Quietly and slowly, Chris tugged Gavin’s cocktail glass away from the irate detective.

“Duly noted,” Connor said, his LED settling back to blue as a small smirk played on his lips, “for someone who appears to be dislike this genre of video, you are quite knowledgeable of the content.”

“I’m a Gen-Z baby, I grew up on this shit,” Gavin explained, blindly reaching for his drink.

“Down boy!” Tina called out, slapping his hand away, “you’ve gotta early morning tomorrow, so we’re cutting you off!”

“Ti-ina,” Gavin drawled, batting back at her, “don’t be mean to me, I’ve got issues.”

“Yeah, I know,” she sighed, clasping his hand into hers and threading their fingers together. Gavin eyed his drink longingly and knew that he’d have to leave soon – he had been busy packing when Tina rang and beckoned him with promises of alcohol and friendship. He still needed to figure out what he was going to wear each day… fuck. What do assholes wear to retreats?

Fucking pressed shirts?

Cargo pants?

Sandals?

Gavin grimaced and turned to Chris.

“What do straight men wear on vacation?” he asked, squinting at his friend with a small degree of panic coursing through his system.

Chris blinked blankly. “Gavin, you’re not even—okay, whatever” he sighed, stopping himself before he wasted precious air, “just wear something smart and nice. No hoodies though.”

“Ooh, ix-nay on your cartoon pyjamas too,” Tina added helpfully.

“Why would you care what straight men wear?” Connor asked, with a small crease between his brows, “you’re pretending to be in a relationship with Nines… surely you would—”

“Oh my god, you are completely missing the point,” Gavin sighed, running a hand through his hair and rumpling it up messily. Tina clucked her tongue and began patting it back into shape, “it’s Whispering Waters, Connor. It’s like… hetero-fucking-central. What if it’s all tacky-ass Hawaiian shirts and khaki capri pants?” Gavin shuddered – he couldn’t bear the thought of wearing anything that could’ve easily been swiped from Hank’s closet, especially around Nines.

“I honestly think that what you’re wearing is gonna be the least of your problems,” Tina said, squeezing Gavin’s hand gently, “seriously, you gonna be alright? ‘Cause you won’t be able to talk to us unless it’s an emergency and I don’t want you to go off the grid, losing your shit, ‘cause you’re stuck with your crush and thinking: ‘oh shit, he doesn’t like me, I’m gonna die alone, cats, cats, cats!’”

Gavin glared at her and leaned over to bite her sharply on the shoulder.

Tina yelped and batted at his face until he retreated back into his corner.

Chris watched and exchanged a withering look with Connor.

“Can I have a shot of that,” Chris asked, gesturing to the glass of thirium.

Connor shook his head. “I wouldn’t recommend it – also, I would miss you quite terribly if you died,” he said, his LED spinning yellow for a few seconds. Chris blinked, blindsided by the sheer honesty before a slow smile grew on his lips.

“Aw,” he cooed happily, “I love you too.”

There was a small beat of silence.

“Their bromance disgusts me,” Tina hissed loudly, thoroughly ruining their small moment.

“You’re just jealous ‘cause Chris is Connor’s favourite,” Gavin retorted, making zero effort to be quiet.

“Actually, Hank is my favourite,” Connor corrected with a small shrug. He turned to Chris and smiled apologetically, “you are a close second, however.”

“I will take that,” Chris grinned, nudging at Connor’s shoulder gently.

“How are you not jealous about this shit?” Tina asked, her tone playfully appalled and offended as she gestured at Chris and Connor.

Gavin snorted. “Because I am your favourite, obviously,” he pointed out, “and Chris is my work dad and Connor is Coffee Bean’s dad. Why the fuck would I get jealous when I am clearly the most important person in this friendship group?”

Tina stared at him in disbelief, before throwing her head back to cackle.

“You are so, so, so wrong,” she chortled, wiping the tears away from her eyes, “listen, listen. Chris is the sun in our solar system, we are just hapless planets who would float away without him around to ground us.” She waved her hand in the air, as if to demonstrate how hapless they would be if they really were planets. Chris had to duck away quickly before she smacked him in the face.

“How poetic,” Connor remarked softly, his eyes wide and a touch awed, “Tina, that was lovely, if factually incorrect.”

“Where the fuck did that come from?” Gavin asked, squinting at her bemusedly.

“Thank you, Bambi; go away Gavin,” she said without missing a beat, before focusing her attention on Connor, “Shannon’s super into space right now, like totally obsessed! We went to a planetarium the other weekend and the guy was talking about the relationship between the planets and the sun and it just hit me! Chris is our sun; makes sense, right?”

“I don’t think that’s how the sun works,” Chris began hesitantly, his words at odds with the glowing blush on his face from Tina’s compliment, “but I appreciate the sentiment anyway, so… thanks.”

“You are most welcome,” Tina replied with a wink.

Gavin snorted, despite the warm feeling blossoming in his stomach – it sucked that he wouldn’t get to hang out with them in the upcoming… fuck, however many days it would take to solve the case. He would miss his friends and he’d miss the support they provided whenever he was dealing with his shit. Jesus, how was he supposed to deal with Nines without these three around?

His gaze drifted to his half-empty glass once again and sighed heavily.

“He-ey,” Tina purred, leaning against him heavily, “you okay sweetie?”

Gavin sighed again and leaned against her, tipping his head onto her shoulder. She hummed and cuddled up to him immediately. He was closed his eyes, distantly aware of the flash of a camera and knew that he’d have to wrestle Chris’ phone from him later. As Connor and Chris began muttering amongst themselves, Gavin nuzzled in deeper against Tina and pursed his lips.

Fuck. An undercover mission where he had to pretend to be Nines’ boyfriend – fuck, how was he supposed to hide his feelings, whilst also using his feelings to help them with the case? Would Nines be able to tell the difference between him acting all loved-up and pretending that he isn’t all loved-up… not that he is loved-up, ‘cause who the fuck said anything about love, he just had a healthy appreciation for the android’s pretty fucking face and dry sense of humour and yeah, okay, the fact that Nines could literally crush his neck in one hand is kinda mind-blowing, but— well, shit. Now he’s arguing with himself.

Jesus Christ, what the fuck is wrong with him?

“T,” he whined, pawing at her shoulder weakly, “I hate boys.”

“I know,” Tina murmured back softly, “boys suck.”

God. What the fuck was he gonna do?

  WHISPERING WATERS RETREAT
  10.52AM

Gavin had no idea what he was gonna fucking do, but he knew that Fowler had to be laughing at him from all the way back at the precinct. That fucker Hank was probably joining in – there probably was a camera somewhere in this hotel room and they were recording his fucking face, eating popcorn and throwing kernels at the screen.

Assholes.

Assholes with their shitty-ass undercover schemes, god, Gavin hoped they choked on their popcorn.

“Detective, is there a problem?” Nines queried, and bless his little thirium pump, the android almost sounded concerned.

Gavin sighed and threw his hand out in front of him.

“There’s one fucking bed,” he said, his words coming out in a long whine.

“Astute observation.”

“Oh, fuck me,” Gavin sighed, rubbing the scar on his nose, “one fucking bed.”

“Yes,” Nines agreed, cocking his head and flicking his gaze between his partner and the bed, “that seems to be the case.”

“Tina is gonna have a field day with this shit,” Gavin continued, hands on hips as he regarded the double bed with a sour expression.

“I don’t understand,” Nines uttered slowly. Gavin could see his LED glowing yellow from the corner of his eye – the android was probably trying to research why this was an issue and sucks to be him, ‘cause all he’ll get in return is pages upon pages of shitty, cliché fanfiction.

“One fucking bed,” Gavin repeated, shaking his head, “why didn’t I see this coming?”

“Detective.”

“One fucking bed.”

“Detective, I don’t understand why this is an issue.”

“The issue is two grown-ass men sharing one fucking bed.”

There was a beat of silence as Nines slowly digested Gavin’s words.

“I’m an android, detective,” Nines said slowly, “I do not need a bed.”

Another beat of silence.

“… what?” Gavin asked weakly.

“I do not sleep,” Nines explained steadily, “when I require recharging, I can stand in a designated port. Similar to that one,” he pointed to the furthest corner in the room, where a silver port stood “there.”

“Oh,” Gavin said lamely, his face burning, “right.”

Shit, he definitely should have known that – he’s only researched androids a million times by now, but the sight of the one fucking bed just sent his mind into a goddamn tailspin.

“Did you think we would be sharing beds?” Nines asked, his words lilting slightly.

“Absolutely fucking not!” Gavin rushed out, dropping his bag to the floor and quickly turning away from the fucking bed.

“Then what is the issu—”

“Come on,” Gavin interrupted briskly, wanting the conversation to end and the moment to die. He refused to be the guy who has to explain this shit to a grown-ass android, “time’s a-wasting, let’s do a quick recce of the place and see what people know.”

Without waiting for his partner to finish his sentence or even persist with the conversation, Gavin strode out of the hotel room. Their room was on the fourth floor and two doors down from the elevator – he was distantly aware of Nines following after him, but he kept his gaze on the silver doors ahead of him. It was odd, but Nines barely made any noise when moving, but Gavin could just feel his presence; as they came to a stop in front of the elevator, his nape prickled with the knowledge that he was being stared at. He roughly jabbed at the button and folded his arms, refusing to pay any attention to the android next to him.

You’re acting like a child, said a tiny voice in his head.

The tiny voice that sounded like an irritated Chris.

Fuck off, he bitterly responded, before he became aware that he was arguing with himself.

“Fuck me,” Gavin sighed under his breath, his cheeks growing warm when, from the corner of his eye, Nines peered at him curiously. The elevator arrived with a tinny ding and Gavin barely restrained himself from throwing himself bodily into it.

Nines gracefully followed suit and thankfully stayed silent.

His LED flickered, however, and that’s all Gavin needed to know that his partner was concerned – or, he was as concerned as he could be, considering his emotionless state of self. He watched as Nines pressed the button for the ground floor and found himself wanting to crawl out of his skin – the silence was touching upon awkward and Gavin hated so many things, so many fucking things, but awkward silences were in the top three.

He sighed roughly and forced himself to peer over at Nines.

“So, what do you think this asshole’s deal is?” Gavin asked, shoving his hands into his pockets, “racist fuck? Religious nutcase? Some weird asshole wanting to make a statement?” He shrugged. “All the above?”

Nines hummed contemplatively – he seemed to accept the change in pace quite easily, though Gavin privately hoped that the android wouldn’t bring up the bed-thing for the rest of the case. “They do possess a degree of artistic talent,” he noted, “a steady hand… probably used to cutting up bodies or meat, so perhaps has first-aid experience? A chef perhaps? Or maybe someone who used to work at Cyberlife?”

Gavin shuddered. “That’s the grossest thing you’ve ever said,” he commented, though inwardly he did agree with Nines. Whoever was mutilating the couples had to have a steady hand, with an eye for presentation. It was odd though… the killer enjoyed turning the bodies into elaborate art and they were always hidden close by the retreat. It was like he wanted to get caught; or perhaps that was the point. Either way, whoever was doing it was a twisted fuck.

The androids were always dismembered, with their synthetic skin removed and their limbs typically hanging off their bodies – it was almost reminiscent of Zlatko Andronikov’s work. God, the sick bastard had clearly inspired some other deprived fucks; except this time, the asshole was toying with humans too. They usually ended up getting flayed and dismembered until they were nigh unrecognisable – without dental records, they’d be fucked.

Then, as if that shit wasn’t enough, the asshole would position them in weird-ass ways and in some freaky fucking places. One couple had been hung by a makeshift altar in the woods, with all of their organs removed; somehow their heart and thirium pump had been torn from their chests and then carefully placed in their skulls. Another couple had been found chained to the bottom of a nearby lake, their bodies carefully wrapped in purple tarp.

Whoever was doing this clearly had a lot of time on their hands and a really macabre imagination.

After receiving the casefile, Gavin had showered for two whole hours under a burning-hot stream of water and then sat on his kitchen floor surrounded by his mini pride of cats. He had seen some sick shit as an officer, but this really took the whole-ass cake. The photos were one thing, but Nines had managed to recover some audio-visual footage from the androids – turns out, the prick liked to kill the humans first and force the androids to watch.

Gavin had managed to watch the first seven seconds of a video before recoiling and flinging his tablet across the room. He shuddered as he remembered their screams and turned to face his partner again.

“You know what, forget it. I don’t give a shit what this asshole wants or what point he’s trying to prove, we just gotta shut this shit down,” Gavin murmured, still feeling slightly bitter over not successfully closing his last case. He had already fucked up once, he needed this case to fix the damage to his reputation… and his pride.

“An admirable call to action,” Nines noted, his tone oddly warm, “I do believe that whoever is doing this is most likely human – from the fibres we found, and the prints uncovered, I believe we are looking for a human male who has mostly likely suffered a loss? The way he attacks the victims suggests anger, even disgust… but is he disgusted by the couples, or is he projecting?”

Gavin felt his head throb at Nines’ minor psychoanalysis – he and Tina had briefly discussed the motive behind the attacks, but it quickly ended when Chris demanded a subject change.

Neither of them could really pinpoint the reasoning behind the murders, bar the obvious: racism, religious fanaticism, fucker had been cheated on, etc…

Hearing Nines dissect the murderer’s possible motive just made him feel ill again. He shifted on the spot and felt his skin prickle – suddenly all too aware of how small the elevator was.

He was practically pressed against Nines’ body – the close contact was doing incredibly detrimental things to his blood pressure and knowing that Nines could easily read his vitals did nothing to calm Gavin’s nerves. He almost jumped out of his skin when, out of nowhere, Nines placed a firm hand against the small of his back, the android’s fingers pressing deep as a means of comfort rather than anything else.

“Deep breaths, detective,” Nines murmured, “I have seen you in action before; you are a fine actor and I am sure there are worse things in life than having to pretend that you are in love with me.”

Gavin’s body went rigid, his mind whiting out for a hot second.

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asked, cursing himself when his voice broke halfway through.

Nines’ LED flashed red for a second – as always, Gavin’s heart skipped a beat and his skin prickled unpleasantly. Though Nines was adamant that he was not heading towards deviancy, his LED was still a good indicator of his mood; seeing it flash red… scared Gavin, more than he’d like to admit.

The elevator suddenly felt a lot smaller.

“I… was just merely trying to reassure you,” Nines uttered haltingly, his LED spinning blue slowly, “you look… tense and your vitals indicate an increase of anxiety. I just wanted to let you know that I am willing to do anything to solve this case, as I am sure you would too.”

“What, like pretending to like me?” Gavin asked sourly, ‘cause what the fuck, way to make it sound like Nines was making some big fucking sacrifice – Jesus, was pretending to like Gavin that bad?

To his credit, Nines looked somewhat stricken.

“I’m not—"

Whatever argument the android had planned was swiftly cut off by the chirpy elevator voice announcing that they have arrived on the ground floor. Gavin roughly swallowed as he stiffly stalked out of the elevator and across the quiet foyer – he didn’t wait for Nines; he just trusted the android to dutifully follow after him.

He could hear Nines’ shoes clacking against the floor and distantly remembered that they needed to play the loved-up couple – it would look to weird now to grab the android’s hand, but also… the thought of holding Nines’ hand made his stomach churn painfully, so Gavin put that thought aside and just carried on marching through the hotel.

He approached the concierge’s desk and gave the lady a short wave. She was a pretty, young woman with a blonde bob and green eyes – her nametag read Carla and judging from the small New Jericho sticker on the badge, she was an android. Or, at least, a human who supported New Jericho – they had come out with a whole line of merchandise to help fund their cause and it was surprisingly popular with human allies.

Connor had bought him a pair of sweatpants with ‘Built in Detroit’ printed on the ass accompanied by little New Jericho logos along the cuffs – they were comfortable as fuck, made his ass look tight as hell, and all profits went to Markus’ little charity schtick, so Gavin also felt like he was doing his bit to make up for being a narrow-minded prick from before.

He eyed the little sticker and gave Carla a short nod – she responded with a sunny smile and waggled her fingers at him.

“Yo,” he greeted, leaning against the counter with roguish grin.

“Hello!” Carla trilled, her gaze sliding from Gavin to Nines – she barely blinked at the RK900 unit, “you must be our newest couple, how fabulous! Welcome to the retreat, I hope you enjoy your stay with us!”

“Thanks,” Gavin replied blandly, already feel exhausted by her exuberant attitude, “I’m gonna be honest, we were kinda worried about coming here after all the… shit that went down recently.” He inwardly winced at his lack of decorum and could practically feel Chris’ disappointed glower from across the city.

“Oh, yes,” Carla’s sunny disposition faded slightly, “well. We have top-of-the-line security patrolling the area and we have cameras and alarm systems placed all over the facility, so you should be safe!” She came across as incredibly uncertain, as if unsure as to who she was supposed to be convincing, herself or Gavin.

“And when were they installed? Before or after death number four?” Gavin asked, trying for a casual tone – unfortunately, Carla was too unsettled to buy it.

“U-um,” she stammered, her gaze flicking between Nines and Gavin desperately – she was painfully human; Gavin had yet to meet an android who could stammer or stumble over their words. Even when emotionally conflicted, they were more likely to start and stop sentences, their sentences trailing off when they become lost in their thoughts – it was oddly adorable.

Not that Gavin would actually admit that.

“Apologies for him,” Nines came to Gavin’s rescue quickly, “his bluntness, though endearing, is something that we are working on.”

Carla blinked at him, a pink flush glowing on her cheeks – a slow smile grew on her lips as she nodded quickly.

“Ah, right, okay,” she said with a soft chuckle, “you two are cute. You know you’ve found the one when they adore all of you, even your flaws!” Nines merely tilted his head, yellow LED stuttering and mixing with a soft blue hue – Gavin barely registered the odd sight, too caught up in the idea of someone finding them ‘cute’, ‘cause fuck yeah. They would be cute, suck on that Chen. Fortunately for them, Carla had not noticed their internal crises. “So how can I help you today?” she asked, tilting her head.

Gavin grinned and nodded towards the pamphlets on the desk.

“Check-in was kinda brief – was hoping you could give us some more info to work with,” he asked, because whoever had checked them in beforehand had been shockingly thin on detail. Gavin had tried prompting the dude for some insight into what the facility had to offer, and he got fucking nowhere. Nines ended up dragging him off to their room – the android could probably tell that his partner was seconds away from launching himself at the receptionist, fists first.

Thankfully, Carla appeared to be more forthcoming.

“Oh, no problem!” she chimed, before pulling out a leaflet from under the desk, “here’s the map of the facility, as well as a timetable for scheduled events and activities.” She opened up the map to the centre on the desk and began pointing at the different buildings and sites across the facility. “I recommend the hot spa soak and the cocktail masterclass! They’re on every other day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon! We also have three restaurants, with two being all-you-can-eat buffets and the other being an international restaurant with a different theme every night!”

Gavin arched a brow – a good case and some good food?

Rock ‘n’ roll.

Carla circled the two classes she recommended and highlighted the opening times for the restaurants before passing it to Gavin. He nodded his thanks and briefly scanned them, taking note of the opening times for the restaurants and the exits on the map – he tucked the leaflet away, inwardly noting to glance over it properly once it was safe to talk.

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” Carla asked, her eyes flashing from Gavin to Nines. She seemed sweet – oddly, she was one of the first androids who didn’t appear unnerved by Nines’ existence. Her face looked oddly similar to Shannon, however, so Gavin supposed it was just as ST300 thing.

“Nah doll,” Gavin drawled, finding her soft giggle incredibly endearing – shit, Tina would’ve climbed her like a tree by now, “thanks. You’ve been incredibly helpful.”

“No problem! Have a nice day!” she trilled, waggling her fingers as she waved them goodbye.

Gavin grinned and walked away, fingering the leaflet in his jacket as he approached the doors that led outside of the complex. According to the map, there were five exits on the ground-floor and twenty-five acres of land to work with – the freeway wasn’t too far off, which made Gavin antsy. It would be too easy to spook the culprit and have them take off. Lucky for them, it was too far away from the river, so at least it was just more land they had to deal with.

He hummed contemplatively and turned to face Nines – he arched a brow when he saw the oddly crimson LED that flickered at the android’s temple. Gavin inwardly groaned – they were not even one whole day into their case and already the fucker was pissed off.

Jesus… and the asshole still had the audacity to deny feeling shit.

He blew a stray hair out of his face and kicked Nines in the ankle; instantly, the LED calmed down to a soothing blue, the android’s attention solely focused on him.

“Hey… so,” Gavin began slowly, musing over how to approach their case, “you wanna split up? Could cover more ground that way, scope shit out and ask the staff what they know?”

“Perhaps tomorrow, or later on,” Nines replied, mulling over the timetable of activities in his mind, “we should establish ourselves as a couple first, build a minor reputation across the facility and then consider splitting up.”

“Huh, shit. Good point.”

“Which also requires we act like a couple,” Nines said, his tone almost snarky. Gavin arched a brow and folded his arms.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he snorted, “you want me to throw myself at you? Swoon every time you walk into a fucking room? Oh, Mister Nines, oooh!” Gavin’s voice rose in pitch, becoming airy and breathy as he feigned a swoon against Nines’ body. The android looked unimpressed and righted his partner up stiffly.

“I take it back,” he murmured, LED slowly spinning, “you are a terrible actor.”

“So sayeth the prick who’s also supposed to be loved up and shit,” Gavin shot back.

“I am acting adequately enough for someone in my position.”

“Someone in your position? You’re supposed to be in love with me, not hanging out with a goddamn leper!”

Nines blinked – he appeared to consider Gavin’s words.

“I consulted many online guides and believe I am doing what they have recommended. I am maintaining constant eye-contact, I have offered you many genuine compliments and I have even extended physical gestures of affection,” Nines explained, tilting his head slightly.

“Is that why you ain’t been blinking? Jesus, I thought you were broken, freaking me the fuck out over here, fuck!” Gavin exclaimed, clutching at his heart dramatically – their relationship had yet to reach the point where Nines could banter back with him properly, but they were slowly getting there.

“I have also deliberated over buying you gifts, but I am unsure as to whether your delicate sense of masculinity would handle being presented flowers and chocolates. Also, I do not know your favourite chocolate and I do believe the language of flowers would be wasted on you,” Nines persisted dryly, his LED spinning slowly.

Gavin snorted.

“Okay. First of all, fuck you. Secondly, my favourite chocolate is salted caramel, but the soft kind, not the hard, chewy shit that breaks your teeth,” Gavin instructed, wagging a finger in Nines’ face.

“Duly noted,” Nines stated, his face twitching slightly, “and flowers?”

“I’m allergic asshole,” Gavin said, rolling his eyes.

“I know,” Nines said slowly, arching his brow slightly, “I would not have given you real flowers, but rather artificial ones made from plastic and silk.”

“How romantic,” Gavin scoffed.

Nines observed his reaction and his LED flashed yellow.

“I find that they would be romantic – you could keep them longer and they wouldn’t irritate your sinuses,” Nines explained; his expression looked a little lost and Gavin felt his heart stop for a second. It sounded like Nines had really given this a lot of thought and for some reason, that made Gavin feel more besotted than ever before. None of his exes, if he could even call them that, had ever brought him flowers.

None of them would have even cared enough about his allergies to accommodate for them either.

Fuck – Nines really was something else.

“O-oh. Well. Fuck. Haven’t you given this a lot of thought,” he spluttered out, aware of the flush creeping up his throat.

“Indeed, I have,” Nines nodded, his face twitching again. Gavin briefly lamented the fact that Nines always stopped himself from smiling fully – unless the android wanted to unnerve someone, he always restrained himself from producing a whole-ass smile and it was beginning to get on Gavin’s nerves. Like, Jesus, whoever heard of an android going deviant over one stupid smile?

“Well then, where the fuck are my flowers?” he sassed, gesturing to Nines with grabby hands.

“I did not buy any, as I mentioned before,” Nines replied with a single arched brow, “I had not thought they would have been received well. Furthermore, I am disinclined in partaking in a one-sided relationship during this case.”

“What?” Gavin asked flatly, ‘cause he sure as shit wasn’t having Nines throwing his ability to be a good boyfriend into disrepute.

“Though gestures of affection are to be given and should not be considered favours, I am not interested in playing the suitor who has to constantly chase. Especially, if we're already in a relationship,” Nines continued, his yellow LED spinning thoughtfully.

Gavin’s brows rose to his hairline in disbelief.

“Translation: I’m a spoilt bitch Gavin, give me presents,” he snarked, slightly blindsided by how serious Nines was taking their fake relationship.

“You have completely missed the poi—” Nines began to argue.

“I’d probably get you a new jacket,” Gavin interrupted hastily, the words falling from his lips before he could stop them.

“—nt,” Nines finished, his LED flashing red as he registered Gavin’s words. “Ah. Why?”

Gavin’s heart jumped into his throat – he had never seen the android look so awkward.

“Because this one is a fucking eye-sore,” he sassed, tugging at Nines’ sleeve with a small smirk. The android had removed all the details that gave away his identity as an FBI agent, but the white jacket was still fucking grotesque, “like, you only have one fucking outfit, do you have any idea how tragic that shit is?” He wasn’t totally lying – it was true that Nines’ lack of choice bothered Gavin greatly and he wanted to give the android a small taste of free-will, even if it was just another set of clothes.

“I think I would like that,” Nines admitted, before flinching away from Gavin slightly, his eyes fluttering shut for a second. “I… we should get started on our case.”

Gavin narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly.

“Alright,” he said, taking the leaflet out of his jacket to scan over the classes quickly, “it’s almost half eleven, could check out the yoga class?” Gavin’s eyes flicked back up to Nines and he waggled his brows. “Could be fun.”

“I think you mean, beneficial for the case,” Nines corrected with a small frown.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “It can be both, god Nines,” he sighed, “I know how to do my job – doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy myself a little. The last case kicked our asses – time to kick some ass back.”

Nines blinked slowly – his version of an exasperated sigh. Gavin, at a push, would consider it adorable, if it weren’t for the fact that this adorable machine could probably skin him alive using his bare hands.

“I suppose it would help in building a realistic and believable cover if we were to engage in activities that you… found enjoyable,” Nines said, casting a glance around the foyer, “your enthusiasm is rather infectious.”

Gavin grinned.

“Don’t start,” Nines sighed.

Gavin’s grin grew wider as he reached up to poke Nines playfully on the nose.

“I ain’t ever letting you live that down,” he promised, before he began to make his way towards the gardens, “come on, let’s go be enjoyably infectious and shit.”

He made it five steps before he realised that he was by himself; he paused and turned back to see Nines looking somewhat perturbed. He arched a brow and cocked his head.

“What?” he asked, “the fuck is wrong now?”

“You’re missing something,” Nines called out, as toneless as ever, yet Gavin could detect a slight tease underlining his words. Gavin rolled his eyes and threw his hands up.

“What the fuck could I have missed now?” he asked tiredly, returning to Nines as he rubbed his scar agitatedly.

“This,” his partner simply said, before smoothly taking Gavin’s hand into his own, threading their fingers together and squeezing softly.

Gavin’s mind went blank – like, 404: Page Not Found, blank.

“You…” he trailed off, unable to form a single thought because holy fuck, that was so fucking smooth.

He swallowed roughly, his pulse roaring in his ears as he evaluated his situation. It was strange but Nines felt… remarkably human. His hand was easily bigger than Gavin’s and softer too; the skin felt so real and warm, the fingers long and tight as they threaded through his own. He could almost feel the gentle pulse of thirium being pumped around Nines’ body – Gavin was transfixed, staring at their joined hands in awe.

He honestly could not remember the last time someone wanted to hold his hand.

“Are you alright?” Nines asked, gently flexing his fingers in Gavin’s grip.

“Super-fucking-duper,” Gavin replied distantly, dragging his gaze away from their linked hands to Nines’ pretty face, “come on, let’s be sociable fucks.”

YOGA CLASS
11.47AM

“You alright?”

“I… yes.”

“You sure? You look like you’re blue-screening.”

“I am… simply concentrating on the class. I’m also slightly surprised with your patience for these poses.”

“Used to do Pilates with Tina back at the academy. Was a time when I could pull my leg behind my neck… here, lemme see if I can still…”

  YOU DO NOT WANT

  YOU DO NOT WANT

  YOU DO NOT WANT

“Oh shit, you okay? Your nightlight is starting up a rave!”

“I am most adequate. I would also recommend you cease with splits; you are garnering too much unwanted attention.”

Gavin snorted and finally looked across to the unsettled android – Nines was scanning the class with a bland look, his little LED flashing yellow, as he sat in the lotus position. Gavin had yet to see the android attempt any other positions, but he seemed quite content on offering his opinions on Gavin’s form.

“Good,” he uttered breathlessly, pulling his legs back into cobra, “figured we could lure the bastard out by drawing attention to ourselves – plus, we’re supposed to be taking part. What happened to establishing ourselves as a couple?”

Nines’ LED flickered, his nose wrinkling subtly.

“Pull your navel in towards your spine more,” he instructed softly, before plucking at the grey sweatpants he was wearing. Gavin had cried laughing when Nines informed him that Connor had donated some clothes for his not-a-clone to wear. They were all two inches too short for the guy and some definitely came from Hank’s wardrobe, “and we are. You are my darling yoga enthusiast and I am simply the encouraging pillar of support who is there for you, no matter how dreadful your form.”

Gavin snorted and pulled himself up into plank, his face twitching from the strain.

“Ain’t you sweet,” he huffed out, counting to three before lifting up into downward dog, “any more ideas as to how to look more couple-y?”

“I am rather unsure,” Nines admitted, his LED flicking yellow as he considered his online guides, “do you believe public displays of affection would be better, or do you believe the killer goes after couples who do not get along?”

Gavin hummed, gently lowering himself back into plank, before he folded himself up into child’s pose. Nines eyes followed the strong curve of Gavin’s back – it was remarkable to see the subtle power in Gavin’s muscles, the way they barely shook as he moved from pose to pose. His DETECTIVE REED folder had, unsurprisingly, required a substantial expansion of memory since their case had started.

Nines now knew which side of the bed Gavin preferred and how perfectly his ankles would fit into the palm of Nines’ hand. It confused him how his programming allowed such nonsense information to stay, yet any implication of emotion would be eradicated instantly.

However, he had long given up on trying to understand how his programming operated – at least, for now. Once the case was closed, he would have ample time to inspect how his coding truly worked.

Maybe he could visit Connor again – the android typically had intriguing insights.

“Good call – could do both?” Gavin suggested, his voice slightly muffled, “start off all lovey-fucking-dovey and then bam! Giant fucking argument… see what gets the asshole going?”

“Sounds like a plan – also, detective, I should let you know that we have been watched for ten minutes now,” Nines noted, his gaze drifting across the class once more.

So far, there were six other couples at Whispering Waters – they were the only human/android pairing currently booked into the treat, which boded well in regard to protecting other innocent civilians from getting hurt. Of the six, only three other couples were taking part in yoga – they appeared completely absorbed in the class, giggling and chatting amongst themselves pleasantly. Nines had yet to approach any of them – rather, he wanted to focus on the staff – however, he could see the reasons as to why they were at the retreat.

Two were dealing with infidelity, one with infertility and the other three had financial problems that were affecting other areas of their life.

“Yeah, it’s cause you ain’t joining in,” Gavin commented, switching from child’s pose to the lotus position. He leaned over and prodded Nines roughly on the cheek. “Come on, you were bitching about not being couple-y enough, Jesus.”

“I am busy assessing the area,” Nines protested, eyeing the instructor with a slight frown, “I do not trust that man – he has yet to approach us, yet seems quite content with assisting the others.”

“Does he look grossed out by us?” Gavin asked, stretching out his neck and shoulders.

Nines scanned his vitals. “No, he appears bored, honestly,” he noted blandly.

Gavin hummed thoughtfully. “You glaring at him?” he asked, his words almost a tease.

Nines rolled his eyes – a first for him that honestly left him stunned for a few seconds.

“I am not glaring at him,” he argued firmly.

“Liar,” Gavin snorted, glancing at him askance, “maybe cool it with the possessive Terminator bullshit and the nice instructor might come over and help me with my locust pose – could also question him at the same time?”

“I am not glaring,” Nines repeated, turning to scowl at Gavin petulantly. As if to make a point, he faced the instructor and shot up a hand, his LED spinning yellow, “we require assistance.”

Gavin barked out a laugh. “You smooth bastard,” he chuckled, eyeing Nines with a knowing glint in his eye. Nevertheless, he perked up when the instructor jogged quickly over to them. The man was a good-lucking human, with bleach-blond hair and a softly tanned body – for a second, Gavin allowed his eyes to wander, before a very pointed cough from Nines brought him back to reality.

“Hey!” the instructor greeted, “sorry, I swear I wasn’t ignoring you – you just looked so comfortable without me interfering, thought I’d leave you to it! Is everything alright?”

Nines turned to Gavin with a yellow LED flickering by his temple.

“He needs assistance with the… ah, locus position, was it?”

Petty bastard, Gavin sighed inwardly, wanting to roll his eyes – instead, he exercised some restraint and focused on the yoga instructor.

“Locust position, honey,” he sniped back, before glancing up at the instructor with a sunny smile, “I struggle to keep my balance, thought you could give me some pointers?”

The man, whose nametag read Jake, grinned brightly and roughly rubbed the back of his neck.

“Ah, yeah, I could but you gotta know, this is a strictly no-contact kinda place,” he said, quickly sending Nines a nervous smile, “hope you understand!”

“Perfectly,” Nines practically purred, turning to Gavin with a smug aura radiating from him.

Gavin rolled his eyes and glowered at the instructor.

“Listen buddy, just tell me where I’m going wrong, okay?” he asked – his cheery tone from earlier had completely vanished. Jake nodded shortly, his wary gaze drifting to Nines once more.

“You wanna join in?” he asked, his jovial tone quivering slightly.

“Absolutely not,” Nines replied delicately.

Gavin snorted and muttered ‘boring’ under his breath, as he manoeuvred his body back into plank position, before moving into cobra and then carefully attempting locust. Nines barely acknowledged Gavin’s surly comment and simply observed as Jake circled Gavin’s body with a contemplative hum. Whilst he was aware of his LED glowing yellow, Nines chose against hacking into it – he rather… Ȅ̵̯̺̰̬͔̅͊̽͒̇̅͝N̵̜̝̜̈́̃́̿̎̑͝͝J̵̢͖̰͔̍O̵͔̿̅̓̉̄̅́̿Ẏ̷̡̹̦̓̐̽̈̀̎Ȅ̴̫͙̼̍̈́D̵̰̣̺̟̹̘̳̩̓̅̐͘ seeing Jake so unsettled around him.

“Huh, you want to draw a strong line from your chest to your nose – there’s no shame in placing your arms on the mat to help you balance,” Jake commented softly, bending down to eye Gavin’s form critically, “use your thighs to push away from the mat, keep your ankles steady – perfect, you’re doing so well!”

Gavin huffed out a self-conscious laugh as his body shook – Nines eyed the pale flush and knew that Gavin’s comment about his praise kink wasn’t a complete jest. He reflected on his DETECTIVE REED folder and hummed when he found the sub-section of Gavin’s weaknesses.

  GAVIN REED HAS A PRAISE KINK

Oddly enough, seeing Gavin’s discomfort was not as endearing when caused by someone else.

“Kitten, please pay attention to the kind instructor,” Nines murmured, his LED spinning as Gavin’s flush grew further down his neck, “he said to place your arms on the mat should you require assistance.”

Gavin’s body trembled.

“Bite me,” he seethed, yet he did as he was told and allowed his arms to fall against the mat.

Jake chuckled as he eyed Nines from across Gavin’s strong back.

“Y’all are pretty cute, can’t see why you’d need a retreat!” he commented, hoisting himself back to his feet as he circled Gavin once more, “nice man! Lookin’ good!”

A sharp whirring noise cut across the serene silence that had floated since the class had begun. Gavin shot Nines a knowing side-glance, his lips curling up into a smug smirk – he had somehow figured out what that noise was and what it represented.

Some fucker was gettin’ jealous and that fucker was growling.

“Someone needs help getting to grips with their emotions,” Gavin teased, waggling his brows as he let his body drop into cobra.

Nines bared his teeth, his LED flashing red – the sight caused Jake to blink in surprise, clearly taken aback by the unsettling sight.

“Someone has commitment issues and is completely allergic to any concept of communicating about emotions,” Nines shot back, his tone bland but Gavin could feel the sharp edges.

“Well someone needs to acknowledge that they have emotions!” he snapped, his cobra falling apart as he reared up in annoyance.

Jake blinked, his gaze shifting from Nines to Gavin, concern written across his face.

“So… I guess we know why you’re here,” he joked weakly, chuckling as he slowly backed away from the irate couple, “but you should know, you ain’t the first deviant who still struggles with havin’ feelin’s, or even sayin’ that they have feelin’s! It’s totally normal! Just gotta give it time, y’know?”

Nines snapped his head around to focus his attention on Jake.

“Do you have many androids staying here?” he asked, his LED spinning slowly as he cocked his head.

Jake laughed nervously again and shrugged. “Can’t really tell you much, confidentiality and all that – but, uh, yeah? Got lots of androids rockin’ up here with issues and shit. Normally they’re with each other, but…”

Gavin arched a brow as Jake tailed off softly.

“But?” he prompted, leaning back on his arms with an arched brow.

“But lately,” Jake shrugged, “they’re comin’ with human partners and it’s nice, y’know? Compared to how things used to be, shit feels all… wholesome?”

Gavin blinked and shared a look with Nines.

Good. Same wavelength then.

“Thanks Jake, pretty sure I’m good for now!” Gavin exclaimed, throwing the instructor a thumbs-up. Jake grinned in response and nodded.

“Cool, see you guys later! Remember to breathe through the strain!” he instructed warmly, before jogging off to assist the other couples. Gavin watched him leave briefly, before returning his attention to Nines. The android’s LED was spinning slowly, almost contemplatively, as he watched Jake walk away.

“So, our perp ain’t bothered by androids ‘cause they’re androids,” Gavin mused aloud, “just freaked out ‘cause they’re hooking up with humans, huh?” Though some considered it controversial at best, mixed relations between humans and androids had been quite the hot topic in society when New Jericho announced that it shouldn’t be considered illegal or taboo – so long as the android in question was fully deviant, it shouldn’t be a problem. That being said, certain places still frowned upon androids and the humans who cavorted with them. He guessed Whispering Waters was just another place trying to jump on the progressive bandwagon. “So guess we’re looking at some purist dickface, right?”

“He didn’t appear concerned by the recent string of murders,” Nines noted, his eyes narrowing slightly as he ignored Gavin. “This could be due to avoiding a panic-induced situation – honestly, he is rather difficult to read. Though he does not appear overly malicious, it is rather suspicious how he finds the current atmosphere to be ‘wholesome’.”

Gavin hummed. “I ain’t gettin’ murder vibes, honestly,” he said, eyeing Jake carefully. The man seemed genuine and kind… after Angela though, he had found it difficult to trust anyone at face value. “But shit man, I’ve been wrong before.”

“You have?” Nines asked, his eyes sparkling in the summer sun.

“Don’t tell T.”

Nines hummed as his LED span yellow. “You’re right – Jake isn’t our culprit,” Nines said, ignoring Gavin as he whooped with joy, “he was on vacation when two of the murders took place.” He looked almost pained at having to admit that Jake was innocent, and Gavin secretly delighted in seeing the expression.

“Please tell me it was some spiritual retreat,” he begged, grinning as he leaned in towards Nines eagerly, “like, he went to Bali to find himself, right? Or India? Dude, did he go to India?”

Nines arched a brow. “Behave detective,” he chided lightly, before standing to his feet, “come. The class is over, and we have more ground to cover.” He held out a hand, gesturing for Gavin to take it. After eyeing the hand with clear conflict in his eyes, Gavin eventually took it and allowed himself to be pulled up. The detective choked out a thanks and averted his eyes – Nines found it incredibly endearing that his partner could be so abrasive, yet so shy in the face of physical affection.

“Right, cool,” Gavin uttered, flexing his fingers in Nines’ grip, “let’s bounce the fuck out.”

Before he could squirm out of Nines’ grip to collect his belongings, Gavin found himself being tugged back towards Nines. The android’s grip was like steel, firm and unyielding, as he yanked his partner against him. Gavin stumbled and flushed as he pressed a hand against Nines’ chest to steady himself. He peered up and found himself torn between embarrassment and outrage – before he could decide how to react, Nines squeezed his hand softly and caused his mind to draw a blank.

“It was a ten-day surfing adventure and he went to Thailand,” he murmured conspiratorially, his lips twitching at the utter delight that blossomed across Gavin’s face.

“Holy shit,” he uttered weakly, “of course he did. Full moon party too?”

Nines’ lips twitched again, and Gavin felt everything within his body melt.

“I can show you the photos later.”

God, I want to sit on that face, Gavin thought helplessly.

POTTERY CLASS
1.12PM

“Come on, let’s Ghost this shit.”

“Let us… what? I do not understand.”

“Christ, just look up the movie Ghost, god, my references are wasted on you.”

“Oh. Oh, I see. Do you wish to play the role of Sam or Molly?”

Gavin snorted and threw Nines a wry glare.

“Fuck you and get behind me,” he instructed, straddling the bench quickly, “and don't mess this up! I wanna make a new bowl for NORP – motherfucker threw his last one outta the damn window.”

Nines cocked his head and moved to the space behind Gavin; he gracefully threw a leg over the bench and sat down, folding his body over Gavin’s with a silent hum. The detective immediately flushed, ducking his head as his body went rigid. Why the fuck had he even suggested this again?

“How did he manage tha—”

“It doesn't matter!” Gavin snapped, his skin prickling as he slowly registered how close Nines was and how good he smelt too. It was weird how androids just smelt good – it was a clean scent, but Nines always had this underlining spice to his smell. He bit his lip when Nines arms came around him to rest upon the pottery wheel in front of them.

“Oh. Detective, this an excellent viewpoint, good idea,” Nines praised, peering across Gavin’s head to scan the class – there were even less couples here when compared to the yoga session. The instructor this time was a young android with shocking blue hair which matched the LED set against their temple. They had a pretty face but dirty clothes, and bright eyes that sparkled as they engaged in conversation with each couple. Nines observed them blandly – he scanned for their schedule and found that they were not present during the other murders.

Either they were innocent, or they planned it so they at least appeared innocent.

Nines narrowed his eyes and waited patiently for them to approach him and Gavin.

“Hello!” the android trilled, sauntering up to them with a short wave, “my name is Ash and I will be your instructor today. Your clay is in the red bowl, the water in the blue – I want you to feel free to create whatever you wish, use your emotions to build with the clay! Think of your hands as extensions to your thoughts, close your eyes and let your fingers do the talking!”

Gavin flushed and glanced down at his hands – this was suddenly a terrible idea.

The instructor, Ash, then turned to address the class as a whole.

“I see some of you have adopted the ‘Ghost’ position – whilst very romantic, I can assure you that things will get messy as the two of you try to navigate the clay. Hence, communication is important! Talk to each other, test each other’s body language – allow your hands to guide and be guided! The trick to art is not perfection, but emotion! Passion! The joy of creation!”

“Christ, T would be all over this shit,” Gavin muttered dourly, imagining Tina and her girlfriend giggling as they squished the clay between them. He couldn’t see Nines letting loose like that – the android was too prissy to be messing around with clay.

“Get messy! Get creative! Get closer!” Ash chanted, throwing their hands up as they paced around the room, “an-nd get going!”

There was a beat of silence as the android beamed at each couple, before it was broken by a chorus of scrabbling for tools and the humming of pottery wheels being turned on. Gavin wrinkled his nose as he cupped a handful of clay and carefully placed it atop the wheel.

“They weren’t here during the other murders,” Nines murmured, reaching around to prod gently at the moist clay. Gavin couldn’t see his face, but he knew the android was pulling a disgusted expression – the thought distracted him momentarily, before his partner’s words slowly registered in his mind.

“Huh? Who wasn’t there?” he asked blankly, turning the wheel on and connecting it to the pedal by his foot. Slowly, he began to apply pressure on the wheel, watching as it began to spin – the clay didn’t move an inch and Gavin wrinkled his nose as he eyed the water. It would be messy; he never really considered himself to be a prissy man, but somehow, the idea of touching wet clay made his skin crawl.

Urgh.

They should have picked archery.

“The instructor, Ash?” Nines clarified, “their shifts at the retreat do not coincide with the murders – odds of them being the murderer are around 8%.”

Gavin snorted as he dipped his hands into the water and slowly began to mould the clay – if it turned into a penis, then who could blame him?

“Could probably scratch them off the list then,” he suggested, furrowing his brows as he flicked his gaze up to watch the other couples. Goddamn, Youtube made this look so easy, fuck, “we should probably check out the timetables of the other instructors, see who was around during the murders.”

“Already ahead of you, detective,” Nines murmured, leaning in close as he reach around to place his hands over Gavin’s – the human jumped in his embrace, his body stiffening instantly. Nines almost hummed in amusement. “The only staff members who were around the facility during each murder were the catering team, a small number of receptionists, two instructors, seven housekeepers and a groundskeeper. Oh, and the manager – but I highly doubt he was involved, due to being housebound as a result of a recent bout of pneumonia.”

Gavin blinked and sniffed away his embarrassment as Nines began to mould the clay, using his hands to manipulate and shape the messy material.

“Guess we should make some rounds then – who are the instructors?” he asked, shifting subtly against Nines’ broad chest.

“The cocktail instructor and the ballroom teacher,” Nines answered, scanning the timetable for the next available classes for them to participate in, “we could attend tomorrow’s cocktail masterclass, but ballroom dancing is surprisingly popular – the next available class is in three days.”

Gavin sighed as he watched Nines slowly turn the lump of clay into a little bowl – androids really were perfectionists, Christ. He scanned the tray of tools and wondered if his partner would let him carve NORP’s name into the creation… could probably add in some paw prints too. Fuck, it would be so goddamn adorable.

“Sweet, getting wasted on the job and on Fowler’s dime too? I’m into it,” Gavin said, mentally hearing Chris’ exasperated sigh, “and I ain’t waiting three days – let’s just gate-crash the next fucking dance class.”

Nines rolled his eyes. “We are not to be thrown out or draw unnecessary attention to ourselves,” he recited the rules from Fowler’s handbook perfectly, “we are also to follow the retreat’s strict rules to the letter and should not attempt to demonstrate any behaviours that would lead to suspicion being aroused.”

“Say ‘aroused’ again,” Gavin teased, flexing his fingers against Nines’.

“No,” Nines said, almost petulantly.

“Killjoy,” Gavin sighed, flicking a finger out and ruining Nines’ smooth creation.

Nines sighed against Gavin’s neck. “Do not be a child,” he admonished, attempting to fix the damage, but Gavin was quick to trap his finger between his hands. The wet clay, with no hands to protect it, quickly began to fall apart on the wheel – Gavin refused to take his foot off the pedal, however. “Will you behave?”

“Make me!” Gavin shot back, snickering, using his other hand to squish the clay bowl between his fingers. A rumble made of electric annoyance vibrated against his back – he chuckled and flicked the clay behind him, knowing that Nines’ borrowed t-shirt was gonna get wrecked.

“Detective,” Nines said warningly, his arms tightening around Gavin’s body, “I will not tell you again.” The android nudged his foot against Gavin’s ankle, but the detective refused to comply. Gavin practically giggled as he kicked back, snorting when the android emitted a growl of annoyance again. “How old you are you?” the android asked, somewhat exasperated.

“I’m young at heart, fuck you,” Gavin retorted.

Their fingers clutched at the clay together as they kicked at each other – Nines coldly uttered warnings whilst Gavin laughed them off with hissed insults and taunts. He couldn’t remember the last time he had flirted with someone he liked; he never really tried this hard to provoke the guy he was into… normally he’d just ask them to suck his dick and see where that got him.

It surprised him, but he found that this was much more fun and seemingly garnered better results.

“Detective, if you disrupt this case—.”

“Agent, if you don’t get that stick outta your ass—”

“Detective.”

“Agent.”

“Yes! See this passion! This love! This is what I’m talking about!” Ash declared, interrupted their moment without a single care, “see this mess they’ve made? They made it together, with pure emotion! They spoke with their hearts and look what they made!”

Gavin knew his face was practically glowing from humiliation, but even still, he glanced down and eyed the mess on the wheel. They had made… some sort of plate? Bowl? Shield-thing? It was oddly curved, but it came to a single point and— oh.

Oh shit. They've made a fucking heart.

Fuck.

A fucking heart.

He eyed the window and found himself embittered by the fact that they were on the ground floor – fat lot of use that would be, throwing himself outta that fucking thing.

“Oh. Detective look, it appears we made a—”

“Don’t fucking say it.”

Ash floated over to them, peering down at their shitty clay heart with a soft expression in their eyes. “Your feelings for each other truly transcend all expectations! You must be so devoted to each other! Please, you must share with us, how long have you been together?”

Gavin swallowed inaudibly, acutely aware of the attention he was receiving from the rest of the group. A man with long black hair was glaring at him  – he was sitting next to a truly disgruntled woman who had her arms folding as she scowled at the mess on their wheel. Fuck, he was getting flashbacks of bullying the teacher’s fuckin’ pet and he knew that this was karmic retribution, finally coming to take his ass out.

“Two years – it’s actually our anniversary in three days, hence why we have come here. We wanted to do something different to celebrate, isn’t that right kitten?” Nines was saying, answering Ash’s question on Gavin’s behalf; his tone was bland, but Gavin could feel the smug aura emitting from behind him. Bastard android.

“Kitten? Oh, how quaint!” Ash gasped, clutching at their chest as they stared, starry-eyed, at Gavin. The detective could feel his face burning and mentally begged for some natural disaster to come along and put an end to everyone's fucking misery.

“Well, yes. It makes sense, see? He may seem abrasive and harsh, but I know how to make him pur—”

A harsh metallic noise echoed in the horrifically quiet room as Gavin slammed his elbow into Nines’ steel-fucking-stomach. He winced as pain flared up his arm and rattled his funny bone something fierce, but he found that he didn’t give a shit, he had to do something to get Nines to shut his fucking mouth. Ash blinked, tilting their head as they took a subtle step back and clasped their hands together.

“Such… passion,” they said weakly, before mechanically turning around to approach the miffed couple that had caught Gavin’s eye before, “now let us see what you have produced! Oh! A cow, how wonderful!”

“It’s supposed to be our daughter," the woman replied bitterly.

“Oh,” Ash said, “how… abstract!”

Gavin tuned them out and turned to glare heatedly at Nines.

“Call me kitten again and I swear, I will fucking rip your dick off,” he hissed, his cheeks burning from the humiliation.

Nines arched a brow, his lips twitching as he gazed back serenely. “Good luck with that,” he murmured, prodding at their clay heart curiously, “I don't have one.”

It shamed him to admit it, but it took Gavin almost ten whole-ass minutes to figure out what Nines had meant.

He could almost hear Tina cackling at him from across the city.

THE SLOW BOAT RESTAURANT
7.47PM

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Gavin asked.

Nines blinked, unsure as to how to answer – truthfully, he had been rather distracted by the image the detective presented. Though they had returned to their room together, Nines had cleaned and redressed first, leaving Gavin behind to grab a table at the restaurant. Since Gavin’s arrival, Nines had found himself unable to tear his gaze away from the detective’s form. His partner had changed into a rather tasteful white Oxford shirt, leaving the top two buttons undone – Nines could spy a sliver of collar bone and a hint of chest hair. The shirt was paired with a pair of tight, light blue jeans and burgundy suede loafers. The jeans ended two inches above the detective’s ankles and Nines hadn’t realised that bones could be so distracting, he found himself wanting to… wanting to… touch the detective’s ankles and… and…

  YOU DO NOT WANT

  YOU DO NOT WANT

  YOU DO NOT WANT

  YOU DO NOT WANT

  YOU DO NOT WANT

Nines sighed and closed his eyes – the messages regarding his system instabilities were increasing as of late and Nines was starting to… feel Ì̶̡̲̅ͅR̶̢̗͍̱͇̦̃̈́̓͋̇̐͝R̷͖͗̈̐̇Ȋ̷͇̭͊̏̓̇̌͝T̵͔̗̙̼͒̓͋͗͝͝Ã̵̡̧̡̺̱̠ͅT̸̝̲̬̗̫̠͐̃̈͗̕͝Ḝ̴͎̪̭̺̭̙͛͛̂̈́̐́͝D̶̟̳̼͐̂̈́̆͘ by the colour red.

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

“Yo,” Gavin murmured, nudging Nines’ leg gently under the table, “you okay?”

“I am,” Nines began haltingly, “fine. I am fine, just… considering our case.”

“Liar,” Gavin shot back, but his eyes were glittering in the candlelight, his lips tugging upwards into a soft smirk.

Nines blinked in surprise – he had not known that Gavin could read him so easily.

“I… I suppose I was thinking that you looked rather… handsome. I suppose,” Nines admitted, his gaze drifting over Gavin’s face. The man had recently shaved, and he appeared to have utilised hair product to fluff up his locks.

“Fuck me,” Gavin blurted out, his cheeks tinging pink, “I mean, that’s gotta be the nicest thing you’ve ever fucking said to me.”

“Liar,” Nines shot back.

Gavin snorted softly.

“Okay, but you’ve never said anything nice about the way I look before,” he murmured, averting his gaze downwards to his empty plate.

“Yes, probably because you’re normally coated in toothpaste stains with dark bags under your eyes. You also rarely shower due to your lack of prioritising your own state of health when dealing with difficult case. Also, Connor once informed me that your hoodies aren’t particularly stylish, so—”

“Okay, okay!” Gavin announced, holding up a hand, “I’m a hot fucking mess and an actual trash goblin of a human, thanks.”

Nines blinked. “I never once considered you a… ah, ‘goblin’. Rather, I enjoy seeing you regardless of your natural state – your humanness is something that I find… endearing?” he admitted, eyeing the pink hue that slowly crept across Gavin’s cheeks.

“You… you feel endeared, huh?” the detective huffed out, trying hard to redirect the conversation to something less embarrassing for him, “funny. Pretty sure you ain’t supposed to feel shit.”

“I don’t really,” Nines insisted lightly, internally deciding to not discuss what Connor had informed him just yet – it was too soon and would probably distract Gavin from their case, “I can simply see how others would feel endeared by you.”

Gavin snorted, before throwing his head back and laughing loudly. Nines wasn’t sure what was so amusing but seeing Gavin’s face in the throes of joy caused his inner circuits to buzz pleasantly. The man’s face crinkled up, the lines by his eyes deepened and grew… minor signs of age, but they added character to his overall appearance. Gavin, from what Nines could see from online resources, was a rather good-looking man considering society’s expectations of human attractiveness – he could see why he would garner a lot of notice from those around him.

Nines just… did not appreciate the extra attention Gavin was receiving.

Their waiter came by their table and lightly touched the detective on the shoulder – judging from the stance the man had adopted, he was attracted to Gavin and Nines… Nines… did not…

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

… L̶̛͖̹̫͎̱̪̜͎͓̮̪̺͇̮̽̒̆̆̍͋̓͐̈́̋͗̕͜͠I̸̧̢̬̝̝̚Ḵ̸̻͔̈́̐̎̆̔̆̓͂Ę̸̧̢̨͖͈̱͎̬͖̠̅̒̀ that.

“You want any food for the table?” the waiter asked, smiling softly at the detective. Gavin blinked at the hand on his shoulder and arched a brow. He flicked the menu a quick cursory glance and shrugged, dislodging the waiter’s hand easily.

“Nah, I’m good,” he replied. Truthfully, he felt a little uncomfortable at the prospect of eating in front of Nines when the android couldn’t do the same. Just the idea left him feeling rather unsettled and he resigned himself to surviving off of the protein bars that Connor and Chris had packed for him, “just bring me another house red, yeah?”

“Certainly sir,” the waiter responded, and Gavin almost purred at the title he was given. Fuck, he lived for feeling important and shit, “and for you?”

Nines glanced at him blandly, scanning the waiter for anything unsavoury. The man had a clean record, with no misdemeanours or charges against him – Nines narrowed his eyes and scanned him again, just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything out. Nines almost pursed his lips; there wasn’t even a single detention in his file.

“You have nothing that interests me,” he stated bluntly, his gaze drifting to Gavin when his partner choked out a quiet laugh.

“O-Of course sir,” the waiter uttered, his cheeks flushing pink, “I’ll be back with your drink.”

“Cool, thanks,” Gavin acknowledged absently, peering at his partner with blatant amusement sparkling in his eyes. The waiter nodded and left, heading towards the kitchen with a slight skip in his step. Nines felt his lips twitch again – though, for some odd reason, it felt different this time.

Gavin observed him for a moment, before he rolled his eyes and kicked the android under the table.

“Dude, unless you can shoot lasers outta yours eyes, I’d just give up,” he remarked, “that being said, you should totally find a way to install lasers into yours eyes. That’d be fucking wicked.”

Nines’ LED calmed down to a soft blue as he absorbed Gavin’s words.

“I don’t think such an application is high on New Jericho’s list of priorities,” Nines responded blankly, though privately thought that laser eyes would be most… beneficial in certain situations. He’d have to ask Connor about it once their case was finished.

“Pity,” Gavin remarked, leaning back in his chair to observe Nines with a scrutinising look, “so… you gonna tell me why you wanted to skin that poor dude alive?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“God, you’re such a shitty liar,” Gavin declared, rubbing his scar tiredly, “like seriously, considering how fucking advanced you think you are, you’re still so fucking dumb.”

“And yet I still far surpass you in terms of intelligence,” Nines sniped back.

“You were jealous of that asshole, right?” Gavin shot at him, for once not rising to the bait. Nines was getting good at finding ways to get under Gavin’s skin – luckily for him, he was just as good at finding Nines’ berserk buttons.

“No, Gavin. I was not.”

“Oh really? Then why the icy fucking attitude?”

“I… I don’t know,” Nines forced out, suddenly finding it difficult to form words.

“You know what I think?” Gavin asked delicately, eyeing his partner carefully, “I think you’re fucking scared.”

Nines’ LED flickered red, almost too fast for Gavin to really take note of it – his face remained stony, which did nothing to quell the fear the flickered in his stomach.

“I do not get scared—” Nines began, and fierce irritation swallowed up any fear that Gavin felt of his partner. He leant across his place and glared hotly at the android.

“Bullshit,” he spat, “bull-fucking-shit, you get scared. I’ve seen you get scared.” Nines’ LED flashed dangerously, but Gavin took no heed of it, “every time you get angry or frustrated or feel any-fucking-thing, you… you like, seize up or some shit and it’s like you just can’t cope with whatever you’re going through and then it’s… it’s like you fucking switch off. Gives me goddamn whiplash and you think I don’t fucking notice, but I do.” His hands grew clammy and he could feel his heart pounding against his chest, but he had been repressing this shit for far too long.

“Detective, I really don’t thin—” Nines began, his LED spinning crimson and yellow as he gazed stonily at his partner. Unfortunately, his rebuttal was lost when their waiter reappeared behind Gavin.

“Here’s your drink – are you sure I can’t get you anything else?” the man asked, setting the wine glass in front of the detective as he gently placed his hand on Gavin’s shoulder. Nines eyed it and felt something crack in his code.

“Must you insist on touching him?” he barked, his LED blaring red. Gavin blinked, staring at him with what appeared to be horror and concern – more importantly, the waiter jumped away from their table, fear radiating from his frozen form. The restaurant had fallen silent, the patrons staring at their table with varying degrees of judgement; Nines knew that Gavin detested this kind of attention, but he found it difficult to care when the waiter was still standing far too close to his partner.

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

  YOU DO NOT FEEL

Gavin cleared his throat uncomfortably and twisted around to shoot the waiter a sheepish smile.

“I think we’re good for now, thanks,” he said, throwing the man a wink to try and break the tension.

“You sure I can’t tempt you?” the waiter replied, slowly relaxing in response to Gavin’s easy demeanour. His words drew a dark whirring noise that Gavin recognised as Nines reaching his limit – the android didn’t understand emotions at the best of times, which meant he really didn’t know how to handle them either. The fact that the bastard still refused to admit that he experienced emotions just made the whole ordeal more exhausting than it needed to be.

“Nah, we’ll flag you down if we need anything else,” he sighed, wanting to nip this shit in the bud quickly.

The waiter nodded and flicked his gaze over to Nines briefly before he absconded back towards the other patrons. Gavin wrinkled his nose, absently aware of the envy he felt for the lucky bastard being able to escape such an awkward moment. With a lowly muttered curse, he turned back to Nines and folded his arms.

“You know, if he’s the murderer, we’re definitely fucked,” he mused, picking up his wine glass to swirl the red liquid inside, “just saying – you’re always nagging at me to act professional and you probably just pissed off a serial kill—”

“He’s not the killer,” Nines interrupted, his tone cold and hard, “and I think you’ll find that I was acting appropriately. The waiter has been paying you an unusual amount of attention considering you’re clearly in an established relationship and—"

“So fucking what, guys find me hot, big deal,” Gavin interjected with a shrug, “it’s not like I was gonna suck his dick at the table... not like there's another one to suck here anyways.”

Another whirring growl emitted from Nines’ body and Gavin felt his body prickle with unanticipated arousal and a hint of shame for the shitty joke. His breath caught in his throat and he stared up at Nines, curiosity burning through his veins. It was a dangerous game, tricking Nines into feeling shit, but Gavin was a glutton for punishment.

He just had to be careful – one wrong move and their case could be completely ruined by Nines killing the shit outta him. Taking a slow sip of wine, Gavin eyed Nines and sat back in his chair.

“Marco found me hot,” he said conversationally.

“Enough.”

“The waiter finds me hot.”

“Detective.”

“What are you gonna do about it?” Gavin asked, his eyes flashing as his lips curled into a soft smirk – an unspoken dare.

“I am not impressed by your behaviour,” Nines said, ignoring Gavin’s question, “you have flirted with every member of staff before me, from the concierge to the yoga instructor—"

“The fucking concierge?”

“—and it is not safe. A member of staff may be our murderer and I do not want you provoking them in this manner,” Nines declared, his LED spinning as he scanned the room. Gavin watched him, his face falling blank as he slowly registered the change of subject.

“Please tell me you’re not just saying that ‘cause of your blatant jealousy,” he remarked dryly, sitting back in his seat as he considered Nines’ statement. It would make sense for a member of staff to be the murderer – they would have access to details about the couples, who they were, which room they were in, when they would be out and about…

“Do you honestly believe that I would feel such an inconsequential thing?” Nines asked reproachfully, staring down Gavin with a single raised brow, “and do you honestly believe that I would allow anything to affect this case?”

Gavin suddenly felt too exhausted to even try and argue with Nines; they were just going around in circles, bickering over the same topic and not arriving at any satisfying conclusion. Instead of calling Nines out on his denial, Gavin shrugged and pushed his wine glass away.

“Whatever,” he scoffed, “so someone working here is taking on some extracurricular shifts, huh? Makes sense. Someone working here would have access to the victims – countless murder weapons in the kitchen too. We’d need to find an excuse to check it out, question the workers, see if anything is missing.”

“It could be a chef,” Nines pointed out, “they would have the skill required to make such precise cuts, as well as access to cleaning products to tidy away their mess.”

Gavin nodded before picking up his glass to sip at his wine.

“They still need access to the weird-ass locations we found the victims in,” he said, tapping his glass thoughtfully, “the groundskeeper then? Or someone who knows where the groundskeeper keeps their shit?”

“Possibly,” Nines noted, his LED flashing yellow, “a groundskeeper would also be quite adept with sharp objects – there appears to be two who work at this facility, but the elderly gentlemen was away for three of the murders, which leaves a middle-aged woman. I shall add her to the list of potential suspects.”

“Sweet,” Gavin chimed, drinking more wine as he mulled over the facts of the case, “we should probably head back to the room, cross-reference your list of suspects with the data from the case. Shame they wouldn't give us access to the CCTV recordings... fuckin ’ assholes, ‘we want to protect our guests’ privacy’, well I want to protect your guest’s fucking lives, shit.” He drummed his fingers along the table as he knocked back more of his wine. Nines watched impassively as he considered his partner’s words.

“If I can access a computer, I’d be able to download the full set of CCTV recordings, as well past clients and personal records over the past few months,” Nines said, his LED circling blue slowly, “we could use our findings to narrow down the suspects on my list – we could potentially find the murder too.”

Gavin’s lips curled up into a soft grin. “You know this means we’re gonna have to track down a computer,” he said, tapping his wine glass absently, “ain’t like we can just ask reception to use theirs – looks like we’re gonna have to sneak around, maybe even break into the manager’s office. Seems like the most likely place for computer to have all that shit on it.”

Nines shot him an unimpressed glare.

“You should not sound so excited – this has the potential to get us kicked out and any hopes of solving the case will be thrown out of the window. Not to mention the odds of alerting the culprit to our presence and having them escape without being arrested,” Nines berated.

“That’s why we’re gonna be careful, duh,” Gavin scoffed, holding out his hands, “this ain’t my first fucking rodeo. You can link up to the cameras, right? Just turn that shit off and keep an ear out for anyone who could rumble us. Easy-fuckin’-peasy.”

“I am not a commodity you can just use at will,” Nines said, frowning slightly, “however, I must admit that your plan has some merit. We will need to observe the staff’s rota for patterns – if we are to sneak into the manager’s office, we will need to ensure that it is at a time when there is little risk of being caught.”

“Sweet, can’t wait to tell T that we’re living her Totally Spies dream,” Gavin grinned.

“Just remember to keep your distance whilst we interact with the staff from now on,” Nines said, flicking the detective a warning look. Gavin snorted and leaned across the table with a sharp smirk.

“You know,” he said slowly, tilting his head as his grey eyes glittered in the candlelight, “I can’t tell if you’re saying this ‘cause you’re worried I’m gonna get killed… or ‘cause you think I’m gonna suck someone else’s dick, ‘cause you ain’t got one.”

There was a fragile beat of silence as Gavin smirked at his stony partner.

“I’m leaving to do my job now,” Nines announced flatly, standing up with an unimpressed expression plastered across his face. “When you remember that we’re here on a case, come join me.”

Gavin rolled his eyes as the android stalked across the dining room. “Hate to see you leave, love to watch you go,” he called out teasingly, winking at a nearby couple who appeared scandalised by his behaviour. Fuck yeah, Tina was right – no one could take him anywhere.

His sniggering quickly turned into choking on his wine when Nines mechanically flipped him off.

Chapter Text

COCKTAIL MASTERCLASS 
10.03AM 

“I’m sorry, Christ,” Gavin said, for what must have been the seventh time that morning. 

Nines, once again, continued to ignore him. 

Rubbing a hand roughly across his scar, Gavin sighed and prodded his partner’s LED hard. The android threw him a heated glanced, the little ring of light blaring red momentarily. He still refused to speak though – instead, he returned his attention to the instructor of their cocktail masterclass – a human named Harrison, who had wild blond hair and deep bags under his eyes. Harrison had begun the class by handing out recipe sheets and asking them politely, but with the air of a man who knew he was going to get ignored, to not immediately drink all the alcohol in front of them. 

Gavin felt slightly pleased to know that he was going to be one of those rulebreakers. 

“—I know it’s hard to resist but trust me when I say that tequila tastes a lot better when mixed with orange juice and grenadine – which, by the way is the easiest recipe this side of God’s green fucking earth. Not all the recipes are gonna be that simple, some will require you to use the lighters. Please remember that we’re all adults here, so don’t mess with them and maybe I can actually finish a class without the fire alarm going off. So, now that I’ve covered a Tequila Sunrise, let’s see what else my boss expects me to teach you—” 

As Harrison began to lead the class through the rest of the cocktail recipes, Gavin slowly tuned him out and turned to face his partner again. For someone who couldn’t drink, Nines appeared to be giving Harrison his full attention. 

Well, that wouldn’t do at fucking all. 

He kicked at Nines’ ankle sharply and furrowed his brows when the android barely reacted. 

“—oh, here’s one for the androids in the room. It’s called a Thirium Fickle Thuck, Jesus Christ, who even comes up with this shit—" 

Wrinkling his nose, Gavin scowled as Nines tilted his head and regarded the beaker of bright blue, curiosity clear in his clear eyes. Like he was actually interested in drinking that shit – petty bitch-ass fucker. Nines had told him that he couldn’t ingest thirium like a standard android; apparently Cyberlife had wanted to remove all semblance to humanity in their latest model, so they removed the digestive tract from Nines. Instead, his partner would have to resort to injections of thirium, should he require it. 

Christ, if it wasn’t for the fact that Gavin knew Elijah had nothing to do with Nines’ creation, he would’ve driven up to the asshole’s villa and knocked him the fuck out months ago. 

Connor probably wouldn’t have even minded – shit, Chloe definitely would though. She would most definitely, if eventually, kick the shit outta him in revenge.  

Gavin pursed his lips and poked at Nines again, wondering how the android would react if he knew that Gavin was willing to interact with his shitty cousin again for him. He wondered if Nines would care, or even understand just what a massive fucking deal that would be. 

He sighed and poked the android again. 

Predictably, Nines barely even registered his existence. 

Well.  

Fuck it. 

“Oka-ay, I shouldn’t have called you Private Dickless this morning, that was my bad, totally on me,” Gavin groaned, forcing the words out with a pained expression, “I honestly do not give a shit about what is in your pants, or y’know, the lack thereof.” 

Nines remained silent. 

Gavin pouted. 

“Fuck,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair as he considered the issue at hand. Well, if Nines was gonna be a stubborn little prick, then it was time to pull out the big guns, “alright – listen, I was fucking wrong, okay?” After years of being Tina’s BFF, he had learned very quickly that most disputes could be settled by admitting that he was wrong and she was right, she was the superior detective, he was the lowly minion, blah blah blah… 

Chances were, Nines probably operated on the same petty-ass level. 

After a couple of seconds, his LED flickered slightly, and Gavin took it as a good sign. 

“I’m a painfully immature child who makes jokes to hide how he really feels,” he continued, deadpan, but milking it for all its worth – by now, Tina would have been cackling with joy, scooping him up into her deceptively strong arms and forgetting whatever it was that had upset her originally. “You’re the best fucking agent Detroit has ever seen, so smart and talented, I am in awe of your skill, you Brave Little Toaster.” 

Nines’ LED gleamed blue as it span wildly and Gavin was oddly thrilled by the idea that the android shared a few of his kinks. 

Smirking, Gavin sidled up to Nines and waggled his brows at the stern-faced android. 

“You don’t look half-bad in Connor’s pastel shit either,” he remarked slyly, “baby blue is a good colour on you, you handsome fuck, bet you get all the toasters pinging—” 

“I think I’ve heard enough,” Nines interjected, finally breaking his four-hour long silent treatment. 

“Ah, you talked,” Gavin brandished a finger in his partner’s face, “I win!” 

He was delighted when Nines chose to roll his eyes as a response. 

“You are impossible,” the android stated, his eyes following Harrison as the instructor paced around the room. Carla hadn’t been wrong when she informed them of how popular the cocktail masterclass would be – they were surrounded by five more couples, all of whom appeared eager for the class to begin. “And that last statement was mildly racist – I feel obliged to inform Officer Chen.” 

Gavin pursed his lips and nudged at his android again. 

“You wouldn’t do that to me,” he teased. 

Nines glanced down at him, his LED flickering minutely – Gavin wasn’t sure why, but it caused his heart to skip a beat and he felt his skin prickle under his clothes. 

“There is very little that I wouldn’t do to you,” the android replied. 

Gavin blinked and shifted away from the agent, unsure as to how he could respond without getting punched in the face. Luckily for him, Harrison swept past their table, continuing his spiel on how to create the perfect Blue Lagoon. 

“—and for those who can’t ingest this shit yet, why not try the Sparkling Blue Lagoon? Spoiler alert: it’s basically carbonated thirium; how they carbonate it, is anyone’s fucking guess—” 

Gavin’s attention drifted to the instructor and then passed over the rest of the room. They hadn’t bothered trying to interact with the other couples – mainly because Gavin came here to solve a case and making friends? Not on his fucking agenda. That still hadn’t stopped Nines from running background checks on everyone; despite a few DUI’s and a couple minor felonies, none of them really raised any flags on the android’s radar. 

Just another reason for Gavin to not bother with any of them – instead, he eyed up cocktail instructor and couldn’t help but note the air of stress that surrounded the man which, alongside the clear lack of professionalism, told him that getting answers outta the guy would not be a fun task. 

Shit – now he knew how people felt when dealing with him, goddammit. 

“—so, without further ado, get mixing. And please, at least pretend to mix the drinks before consuming them, thank you.” 

There was a small beat of silence, before Harrison rolled his eyes and gestured at the couples impatiently. 

“Go on!” 

A chorus of clattering glass erupted into the air as the couples began dragging the bottles towards them, chattering and whispering excitedly. Gavin snorted and wondered if it was a smart idea, handing over copious amounts of alcohol to bickering couples. 

Still, he wasn’t one to pass up free booze – he eyed each bottle in turn, passing over the vodka and tequila and grinned as he scooped up the white rum. 

“I will be keeping an eye on your blood-alcohol levels,” Nines warned, only to receive a scoff in return. Gavin screwed the top off and gave the bottle a deep sniff, humming with satisfaction at the sharp scent.  

Nines merely shook his head when Gavin didn’t respond; the human effortlessly provocative, and it wouldn’t do to rise to the bait every single time.  

Instead, he chose to focus on their earlier conversation – for some reason, the notification GAVIN REED IS HOMOSEXUAL? had appeared in his HUD and it wouldn’t go away. His wires itched and he could feel the electricity buzzing under his synthetic skin; he wondered if Connor felt the same, whenever his anxiety was triggered. 

Nines had been working hard to flush the feeling out of his body, but not even his coding could attack whatever virus was affecting him. 

GAVIN REED IS HOMOSEXUAL? 

The words glitched at the edges of his HUD, which made it difficult for him to perform simple tasks, such as scanning the retreat’s staff, or hacking into CCTV. The little notification had been bothered him since their conversation last night and it had only grown more distracting as time wore on. 

He just didn’t understand why the message just wouldn’t disappear – he had tried filtering it away into his DETECTIVE GAVIN REED folder, but it refused to budge. Flexing his fingers, the android gazed at his partner and explored his options. He could either drop this whole matter, which would mean forcing a reboot of his system, which would delete all of his files, but hopefully would remove the notification as well. 

Or… 

Or he could finish the conversation which began yesterday, gather more intel and hope that it would be enough to satisfy the odd little notification. 

A total reboot would ensure maximum efficiency for their case, he would be on top of his form, but it would also mean having to return to Cyberlife to explain why the reboot was necessary. He’d also have to allow them to run a few tests as well… not to mention all the valuable data that could be lost. 

Drumming his fingers along the table, Nines watched as Gavin took a sneaky sip of rum and made his decision. 

“So, genitals are not a… what is the term, ‘deal breaker’ for you?” he asked quietly, watching closely as the Gavin poured copious amounts of rum into the shaker – the instructions provided at the beginning of the class had been turned into origami swans, courtesy of Nines’ nimble fingers, and since then, Gavin had taken it upon himself to just wing it. 

Humming as he set the rum down, Gavin considered the question, not really minding the non sequitur, as he was just glad that his partner was still talking to him. 

“Not really,” he replied slowly, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I dig a good dicking, you can’t get any gayer than me unless you’re Tina, but it ain’t everything. S’why toys were invented.” He picked up the grenadine syrup and swirled it around. “Plus, Tina’s always said that there ain’t nothing a person can do that a good vibrator can’t fix.” 

GAVIN REED IS DEFINITELY HOMOSEXUAL – the notification seemingly glowed and then disappeared. Something that could have been R̸̙̮̈́̌Ẻ̴̛͙̣͎̘̿͒̂̀͝L̶̢̰͇̞̘̠̪̂̍I̷̡͈͙̳̰̒͌E̶̙͊̈̀̌̉̈́F̷̯̮̼̯͐͊ flooded Nines’ wires, the electricity thrumming through his body as his HUD finally cleared up. 

“That’s surprising to hear,” he admitted, subtly edging the bottle of rum out of Gavin’s reach. 

Gavin snorted. “Man, some of the best sex I’ve had didn’t involve a dude’s dick in me,” he said, his eyes lighting up as the grenadine turned their cocktail bright red. “Pass me the pineapple juice!” 

Nines picked up the jug and eyed the pale-yellow liquid carefully. “Interesting. My knowledge of sexual intercourse is limited and exceedingly heteronormative,” he stated, dutifully passing Gavin the juice. His LED slowly span, and Gavin scoffed at the sight of it – he snatched the juice with one hand and flicked the swirling gold light with the other.  

“You are totally watching porn right now and it’s not fucking fair,” he grumbled, pouring the juice into the shaker. He pouted as the cocktail slowly paled, losing the rich red shade quickly and turning into a murkier orange. 

“I am absolutely watching porn right now,” Nines confirmed lowly, “and I have never been more disgusted by humans and their abject willingness to break taboo.” 

Gavin grinned. “Porn is gross,” he agreed easily, “but it gets the job done, better stick with the vanilla shit if you’re so easily offended.” 

Nines frowned. “I did not take you for a man who would watch porn, considering the controversy that surrounds the industry,” he said, “and the ‘vanilla’ material is in short supply, it seems all I have left to peruse is… rather distasteful and degrading.” 

“Hey, I said that porn was gross, didn’t I? Besides, the porn I watch is mostly shit that I’ve made with exes,” Gavin defended, pursing his lips sourly, “and I don’t fuck with that degradation shit; it’s all wholesome in my bedroom, baby.” 

He wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, but for some reason, Nines’ LED seemingly flicked grey. 

Gavin had no fucking clue what that meant, so he just put it down to him seeing shit. 

“Yes, I noticed your particular tastes from your search history. It’s good to see that I was correct in my initial assessment when you were confronted with Marco,” Nines replied, refusing to acknowledge the nickname he had just been bestowed. 

“Your fucking assess— fuck o-off, Jesus,” Gavin grumbled, pushing the bottles away from him to grab the bucket of ice. “Don’t psychoanalyse me by my sexual preferences, you goddamn freak.”  

“But it’s so much fun,” Nines said plainly, eyeing the cocktail to scan the level of alcohol – he made a note to pour most of it away before his partner got the idea to try and drink it all in one go. “And don’t call me a freak, it’s not nice… and you want to be good for me, right?” 

The sharp tingle of arousal raced down Gavin’s spine and pooled in his groin – his grip on the ice bucket slipped as he turned to glare hotly at his partner. Though Nines couldn’t smile, his smug grin radiated from him and Gavin was half-tempted to upend the bucket of ice over the android’s head. 

“Whatever you’re thinking of doing, I recommend you don’t,” Nines murmured, his eyes drifting towards the bucket. 

“You can’t keep pulling that shit in public,” Gavin hissed, kicking at his ankle sharply, “prick.” 

Nines arched a brow. “Yes sir,” he murmured, ‘cause of course the asshole would pick up on Gavin’s switch-y persuasions.  

“Well ain’t you going all out,” he said, scrunching up his nose in response, “think you’re cute trying to hit all my buttons like this? Well it ain’t gonna work – you gotta pick a position and stick with it, does fucked up things to my mind if I’m in one headspace and then some asshole tries to force me into another.” 

Nines hummed as he watched Gavin poke at the ice inside the bucket, a faint frown on the detective’s face. 

“I admit, it is rather difficult trying to pinpoint your exact preferences when engaging in coitus,” Nines confessed, lips twitching into an aborted pout. It was painfully cute, and Gavin found his heart skipping a beat at the sight of it, “so I apologise for my mixed messages affecting your ‘headspace’.” 

Gavin licked his lips as he considered the android’s words, inwardly snorting at Nines’ admission for sending ‘mixed messages’. 

“Oh, so what you’re saying is that the high-tech gizmo finds me unpredictable, huh? Honestly, I’m pretty fuckin’ easy – I just flow with whatever vibes my bedroom buddy gives out,” Gavin purred, winking lasciviously, “and it takes more than a few pretty words to get my panties wet.” A snort flew from his lips as he watched his partner glitch in response – it had taken him some time, but he had accepted that his poor attempt at a wink was laughable at best. It helped, knowing that it did things to Nines’ code. 

The android’s LED flickered red for a moment – Gavin eyed him carefully, spotting the moment where Nines would cease freaking out and return to being Elsa, the android ice queen that they all knew and loved. 

Kinda. 

Sure enough, Nines straightened up, his LED fading back to blue as his eyes slowly glazed over. It was unnerving, the android always looked oddly empty and Gavin really didn’t like it. This time though, something was different – a small gleam lingered in Nines’ eyes as the android peered at him curiously. 

The hairs on the back of Gavin’s neck prickled and he shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny. 

“Really? Well I’ve always enjoyed a challenge,” Nines murmured and all of the blood in Gavin’s body fled south. 

His grip on the ice bucket slipped, a loud crash resounding throughout the room as ice cubes shattered on the floor. Gavin paid the commotion no mind; he was too busy gaping at his partner. 

“Y-You have?” he asked, blinking hard and fast, fully aware of the pink blush creeping up his throat. 

Before Nines could answer, or change the subject, their instructor approached their station with his hands on his hips. 

“What the hell guys?” Harrison demanded, pointing at the mess with a scowl, “I don’t get paid for cleaning up this shit.”

“He did it,” Gavin quipped, jabbing a thumb in Nines’ direction with a flash of a smile.

A small puddle began to form at their feet as Harrison stared, bewildered, at the grown-ass man who was all too eager to shift the blame onto someone else. Looking utterly unamused, Harrison folded his arms and radiated pure irritation for the pair before him.

“I don’t care who did it,” he stated firmly, “I will end it— oh shit, I sound like my dad.”

Gavin winced, clearly empathising with Harrison’s oddly wounded words.

“I am surrounded by children,” Nines commented, glaring down at the puddle as it stretched towards his pure white sneakers. It had taken some convincing, but he had left his dress shoes at home – though he couldn’t help but somewhat pine for his smart clothes.

“I am literally older than you, behave,” Gavin huffed, before focusing a piercing look onto Harrison, “but I still maintain that he did it.”

“You’re kind of a dick, huh?” Harrison asked, squinting at Gavin.

“That’s a fair assessment to make.” 

“Not quite a professional assessment however,” Nines commented, “I don’t believe you’re allowed to make such derisive comments.”

“Report me then,” Harrison said, unnervingly fast, “might get me fired.”

“You do not enjoy your job?”

“What was your first clue? Also, don’t bother reporting me, it won’t get me fired. I’ve tried it before, it doesn’t work,” Harrison said, his tone tinged with disappointment.

“What about poisoning your guests via copious amounts of alcoholic consumption?” Nines asked, pointedly staring at Gavin. 

“No, that doesn’t count either,” Harrison said, waving a hand airily, “I can’t be held responsible if you inflict it upon yourself, I already checked.” 

“No, but I suppose I will,” Nines remarked, arching a brow at Gavin.

“Shit babe,” he drawled, his lips curling into a smirk as Nines’ eyes widened minutely, “why don’t you tell me how you really feel?”

The startled look on the android’s face quickly melted into one of exasperation.

“I try to,” he insisted, which was a lying lie, god Nines sucked at lying, “you are the one who seems most resistant in speaking about emotional matters—“

“—oh, this again, seriously—“

“—so please, do not accuse me of hiding my feelings,” Nines finished, looking far more affected by their conversation that he clearly desired to let on.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “I don’t think you’re hiding them,” he said honestly, “I just don’t you understand what you’re feeling. Man, androids. Amirite?” He turned to face Harrison, waggling his brows in a way that resembled someone sharing an inside joke with a friend.

Nines’ LED flashed yellow, a sign of his growing frustration as he turned to glare at their instructor. “Do not encourage him,” he warned, his eyes glittering dangerously.

Harrison blinked, before an oddly shy smile grew on his lips. “Sorry, but I get it. My ex-girlfriend was an android, so I got some experience with emotional constipation,” he said, tugging a curl behind his ear, “but, y’know, it’s important to stay patient about it, otherwise it gets all fucked up.” 

Gavin’s eyes flashed with interest as he straightened up. “Ex-girlfriend, huh?” he remarked, “what happened – this place didn’t teach you anything?” 

Harrison snorted and shook his head. “Like this place actually teaches you shit – people come here ‘cause they think a break is gonna fix their shit? Nah, man. They’re just living a fuckin’ fantasy here and once they leave, they’ll just be heading back to their same damn problems. ‘Sides, it wasn’t like that with me and Daria. Once deviancy hit, she went all worldly and free-spirited – thought she could really appreciate the world now that she had feelings.” 

Arching a brow, Gavin cocked his head and eyed the man in front of him. 

It was getting harder to read people, and after Angela, Gavin found himself second-guessing his intuition more and more. 

“So, you just broke up with her then?” he asked, keeping his tone light and casual – he sent Nines a panicked look, acting the part of an insecure-boyfriend who didn’t want to lose their android lover because of a dumb thing like feelings. 

His acting skills were on point, as usual, as Harrison clearly ate it up, a faint frown forming between his brows as his eyes flicked between Gavin and Nines. With a self-depreciative snort, he shrugged off Gavin’s question. 

“Like I can afford to go to fucking Ghana,” he said dryly, “we keep in touch though – she’s building some dam with this famous eco-terrorist right now.” 

Gavin perked up, his eyes gleaming as he watched Harrison duck down to retrieve the bucket and place it back on the table. 

“Eco-terrorist, huh?” he asked, not noticing as Nines dutifully dropped some ice into the shaker. 

Harrison shrugged. “Yeah, something-Winters, or some shit,” he remarked, before his attention was drawn away to another couple who appeared to be having a chugging competition. “What the hell did I say? I literally told you all, not fifteen-damn-minutes ago, do not dig into the alcohol, are you trying to get me fired, because if you are then please chug faster—” 

Gavin blinked as Harrison stormed over to the couple, hands on hips like an irate parent. The couple in question cowered away from the instructor, wiping at their mouths with matching guilty expressions – Gavin snorted and peered up at his partner. 

“Damn, it’s like we’ve never left the station, huh?” he murmured, softly laughing under his breath. 

Nines hummed, the sound a soft purring noise that flowed into the air between them. Gavin soaked up the noise – he was beginning to enjoy the odd sounds that Nines emitted, especially when it appeared as if the android wasn’t even making them on purpose. 

“I hope you realise that you are the reason why the station sounds similar to the chaos before us,” Nines said, watching as his partner reached across their workstation to pull the shaker towards him. What was supposed to be a rather playful take on Sex on the Beach had turned into an incident just waiting to happen.  

“I make shit fun, don’t deny it,” Gavin grinned, before gesturing to the shaker, “besides, at this rate? You’re an enabler, so you might wanna turn that holier-than-thou tone down a couple of notches.” 

The android straightened up, clearly offended by Gavin’s audacious comment. 

“I am hardly an enabler.” 

“Uh huh, okay, I’m just gonna casually ignore the fact that you added ice to my drink, you’ve let me lead literally everything on this case so far, you’ve never reported me for my shitty behaviour, you buy me extra strong coffee every morning, not to mention the whole— holy shit, you’re whipped. You’re fucking whipped, how did I not see this before?” 

“I am not ‘whipped’,” Nines stated, his tone icy and short. 

Gavin’s lips curled up into a self-satisfied smile – the android totally looked the term up and it thrilled him deep inside to know that it had clearly ruffled the agent’s feathers. 

“I don’t even know what to do with the power I have right now.” 

“I am not whipped, detective, nor do you have any power over me, so behave.” 

“Man, I can’t wait to tell T that I have you wrapped around my finger.” 

“I do not condone this childish behaviour.” 

Gavin snorted. “What do you condone, Christ?” 

“Certainly not drinking at this time of day, that’s for sure,” Nines said, glancing around the room at the other couples, “I do not believe that this is a suitable way to assist couples with their problems. The two women across the way? They’re dealing with financial difficulties caused by addiction – why would they think it suitable to come to this class?” 

“Man, leave ‘em alone,” Gavin said, despite eyeing the couple in question with judgemental eyes, “if they wanna fuck up their relationship, let ‘em. We’ve got our own shit to sort out.” 

“I still don’t think you ought to be drinking whilst on a case.” 

“Come on, honey,” Gavin cajoled with an arched brow, “I ain’t gonna be drinking that much, so loosen up a little – call it ‘getting into character’, or whatever. We’re here as a couple on holiday, so fuck it.” 

“Well. At least no one could say we weren’t dedicated to our mission,” Nines conceded, a light crease forming between his brows. 

“Cheers to that,” Gavin grinned, saluting the resigned android with the shaker before proceeding to chug the strong cocktail inside.  

Nines watched and judged silently as his partner began choking after just four seconds. 

BALLROOM DANCING 
2.31PM 

“Do you know how to dance?” Gavin asked, feeling acutely uncomfortable as he watched the other couples twirl and spin around the dancefloor. Yann Tiersen’s La Noyee flowed through the air, broken up by the laughter and whispers of the dancers around him. 

Gavin was not a ballroom dancer by any means – bar the station’s private parties, Gavin rarely had the opportunity to dance. He never went to the chief’s annual ball and his exes weren’t the type to take him out dancing, so this was new and terrifying territory. Lucky for him, Nines looked just as unnerved, as the android peered around the room looking lost and out of place. 

Doubly lucky that the instructor hadn’t thrown them out when they appeared without booking first. They were definitely on her shit list though.

“I know the fundamental basics of dancing,” his partner replied, LED blaring yellow, “but trying to find further information is rather overwhelming. It may be prudent to start with something simple,” he eyed a passing couple who seemed to be hopelessly tangled up in a heated salsa, “that way we can avoid risking… injury.” 

Gavin snorted and approached the android, stiffly reaching up with his arms. 

“Come on, honey,” he purred, “we’re supposed to be in love, right?” 

Nines’ LED flickered as he scanned the room, before peering down at his detective with a decisive nod. Slowly, he curled a hand around Gavin’s waist and tugged his partner closer, loosely clasping Gavin’s hand as per the directions dictated in the manuals he found online. Their instructor, a stern woman with a shaved head and strong arms, had given them the basic steps for a simple waltz – from what Nines could see, most couples were loosely interpreting her directions. 

Lacing his fingers with Gavin’s, Nines felt his LED flicker when the human’s hand clutched at his shoulder.  

GAVIN REED FITS PERFECTLY

Nines blinked the notification away – it made no sense and appeared half-finished. Gavin Reed fits perfectly… where, exactly?  

“So, you wanna,” Gavin murmured roughly, his fingers twitching in Nines’ grip, “start dancing, or some shit?” 

The android cocked his head and closed his eyes, quickly filtering through online instructions for easy dances – their instructor had taught them simple steps, wanting them to warm up before diving into more advanced, difficult moves. Gavin had visibly demonstrated his appreciation, sighing with relief when he realised he wouldn’t be expected to be an expert foxtrot dancer in one day. 

From his selection of online material, Nines focused on a waltz, though he had lingered on a slow tango. For some reason, viewing the visuals had sent his thirium pump to skip several beats and knew that he wouldn’t be able to replicate the dance with Gavin without getting distracted. Just the thought of Gavin’s body pressed tight against his, with their legs entangled… the electricity in his body just went haywire and he was distantly aware of his flickering LED. 

“Yo,” Gavin barked, discomfort clear in the sharp syllable, “people are starting to stare! Pretend you fucking like me and dance!” 

Nines’ eyes snapped open and he peered down at the irate human before him. 

“Apologies,” he said, “allow me to lead?” 

Gavin reared up, his stormy eyes blazing. “Why the fuck do you get to lead?” he demanded, clearly taking offense to Nines’ question. 

The android merely shook his head and began stepping in time to the music, gently pulling the detective along with him. Despite his objection, Gavin seemed quite at ease with being lead around the ballroom, taking a few fumbling steps before he slowly adapted to Nines’ steady pattern – the android barely allowed him room to make a mistake, keeping his grip strong and his movements firm, making it smoother for Gavin to fall into the flow. 

“If it would appease you, you may lead next,” Nines said knowingly. 

“Damn right it would appease me!” 

Nines merely hummed in response and Gavin glared, understanding immediately that he was being humoured. Interestingly, the human fell silent, his gaze falling to their feet and his face scrunched up in concentration. It was rather… adorable to view. 

GAVIN REED IS A PERFECTIONIST appeared in his HUD again and Nines almost felt… F̶̖̙̬̼̈́͒O̷̦̘͝N̴̫̙͚̓̕Ḑ̵̏̇͊ upon seeing it. 

He blinked away the notification and cast his gaze around the room. Ballroom dancing seemed to be a rather unpopular choice – only two other couples joined them for the session. The same angry couple from their pottery class were currently purposefully stepping on each other’s feet, gaining the ire of their dance instructor. Across the way, a couple of two android women were engaging in a perfect imitation of the cha-cha, giggling and flirting openly with each other; the sight intrigued Nines, especially as they were dealing with infidelity issues. He couldn’t quite understand the concept of taking a lover back after being cheated on, but he supposed he wouldn’t understand much when it came to relationships. 

Glancing down at Gavin, he couldn’t help but explain the R̴̲̬̟̬̠̩̍̐̅E̵̡̛̬̖̒͊͝L̶̈́͋͜Í̶̯Ę̵̧̗͎̣̗̝̅̑̔F̵̨̳̺͙̪̙̒́̅͜͝ that flooded his sensors when he thought about how loyal and honest the man was.  

GAVIN REED WAS FAITHFUL

Without truly being aware of it, Nines curled his fingers tighter around Gavin’s hand, wanting to keep the man by his side but unsure as to how to accomplish such a task. Gavin was unpredictable at best, but Nines knew that once the detective opened up his heart to a person, then that lucky individual would forever be entwined in his life.  

“Fuck,” the detective muttered, scrunching his nose up as insecurity clouded his eyes. Despite following Nines’ lead perfectly, he still glared down at his legs like he was unsure of how to use them. 

Nines felt electricity crackle at his joints at the sight. 

“You are doing quite wonderfully,” Nines said, his hand on Gavin’s hip tightened momentarily, “I am impressed.” Without warning, he then stepped back and spun Gavin around in a perfect circle, before scooping the human back into his chest. “Fascinating – you are surprisingly adept at adjusting to improvisation.” 

“Uh, yeah,” Gavin uttered, “sure.” He scrubbed at his face, hating the hot flush that crept over his cheeks at the praise – he had never been one for blushing, but since Nines waltzed into his life, his face had been permanently pink. 

Urgh, ‘waltzed’ – what a terrible and unintentional pun. 

Shaking his head, Gavin glanced up at Nines and motioned towards the instructor with interest in his eyes. “Reckon she’s our killer?” he asked quietly, acutely aware of the ears around him.

Nines observed the woman and narrowed his eyes at her. “She does not possess the physique required for the crimes – there is very little chance of her being our culprit,” he reported, which made sense, considering the woman was definitely in her 70s.

Or she was in her 50s and just had a rough life.

Gavin wasn’t one to judge. Much.

He sighed and cocked his head. “If she ain’t our killer, then why the fuck are we here?” he complained, gesturing around the room with his head.

“Building upon our relationship, of course,” Nines said, “it also gives me the chance to pinpoint the security cameras for review later. Plus, she could be a potential witness, you never know.”

Wrinkling his nose, Gavin merely conceded his point with a soft groan.

“Christ, I don’t like how long this shit is taking,” he complained, “it’s a fucking lucky break that we’re the only assholes here who are at risk, ‘cause fuck. This shit is a joke.”

Nines hummed in response, his LED making lazy loops as he considered Gavin’s words.

“I understand your frustrations, but honestly, is dancing with me that much of an issue?” he asked, before his lips twitched again, “well, kitten?” His little tease caused Gavin to scowl in response and knee him in the groin. He cursed under his breath as he failed to garner a reaction and remembered as to why that was.

Fucking dickless pricks – sucking all the joy outta his life.

La Noyee gradually faded away, until Jo Blankenburg’s Illumielle floated through the speakers instead. The song built up slowly, the piano soft as it filled the air – Gavin bit his lip at the familiar tune, unable to block out the thoughts of his mother dancing with him to this tune.  

It had been years since he last heard it and it never failed at leaving his heart racing. 

“You recognise this song?” Nines asked, his LED gold as it span. 

Gavin blinked and glanced away, creasing his brows as he mulled over telling the truth. 

“I, uh,” he began haltingly, “before my mom took off to save the world, she took me to this Christmas party and they played this song – she dragged me kicking and screaming to the dancefloor, but it was pretty cool in the end. She span me around the room until I almost threw up. She left about two weeks into the new year, so… I don’t know, this song is pretty sacred, y’know?” 

Nines hummed and Gavin could almost feel the sound as it vibrated from the android’s chest. 

“Whilst I don’t understand the concept of sentiment, I do… thank you, for sharing that memory with me,” Nines said, squeezing Gavin’s hand softly. 

“Yeah? Not bad for a human who can’t interface.” 

“I think I prefer hearing you talk about your memories,” Nines admitted, “some androids may prefer the intimacy that comes with interfacing, but I find that simply viewing memories… takes away some of the passion. It helps with cases, not so much when it comes to learning more about you.” 

Gavin bit back a smile and ducked his head, feeling oddly shy. 

“You wanna spin around until you throw up?” he asked instead, breaking the fragile tension with all the grace of a wrecking ball. He hadn’t quite reached the stage of being comfortable with emotional intimacy, especially in such a public space, so it was only natural for him to ruin what could have been a cute moment. 

Lucky for him, Nines didn’t seem to mind. 

“It’s physically impossible for me to eject bodily fluids,” he stated, “but far be it from me to deny you some fun – we are supposed to be a couple, after all.” 

Gavin grinned and stepped back, holding Nines’ hands tightly. With a quick wink, he lunged to the left, using the momentum to swing Nines around the dancefloor. With surprising grace, Nines followed Gavin’s lead, allowing the detective to spin him around the dancefloor – his gaze zoned in on Gavin as he laughed deeply, head thrown back as tears gathered at the corner of his eyes. 

“Do you mind?” Estella snapped out, barking at them from across the room. Her voice was sharp enough to halt Gavin in his tracks, his body locking up from ingrained obedience as he came to a standstill, Nines pausing in his steps as he looked across to the instructor. 

“Apologies,” he called to her, “we were simply having… fun.” 

“Have fun in a more dignified manner!” Estella scolded, before turning her heel and marching towards the female androids; her intimidating figure had them cowering away, eyes wide with fear. 

A beat of silence stretched between them as they watched Estella berate the couple for bringing disgrace to the traditional form of the cha-cha. It was broken when a small stream of giggles erupted from Gavin’s lips, the man trying hard to stifle them with a hand. 

“There is still a chance of her being our suspect; she will destroy you if she catches you laughing at her,” Nines warned, catching Gavin’s hands to return them to their previous position – one rested on his shoulder, the other clasped gently in his grip. 

“Well fuck,” Gavin chuckled, “better not give her any excuse then – wouldn’t want to lose my damn head over a fucking dance.” 

He then tugged Nines’ body against his, grinning wickedly up at the android. 

“My turn to lead,” he murmured, quickly falling into a clumsy rendition of their waltz. Nines humoured him, following his steps as smoothly as he could, keeping his focus on the small crease of concentration that formed between Gavin’s brows. 

For some bizarre reason, he wanted to tou— 

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT WANT

Barely restraining himself from rolling his eyes, Nines swept the notifications away and felt his chassis itch as his coding slowly erased the desire to stroke the space between Gavin’s brows. It was becoming more of an effort each time his coding attacked his deviant thoughts and he couldn’t help but note how it was taking longer for his mind to flush out the intrusive data. 

The mere idea that he could… actually be turning deviant, or at least, a version of deviant, left him unbalanced. He’d have to speak to Connor, or even Markus upon closing this case. The longer he left this issue unchallenged, the worse it would become. 

Nines refused to allow a matter like this to affect his life – not when his relationship with Gavin was so strong. 

“Hey,” Gavin nudged, blinking up at Nines, almost shyly in manner, “spin for me?” 

Nines felt his facial components glitch at such a simple, innocent request. He dutifully twirled around, his LED shining brightly in the lowly lit room as he bent under Gavin’s shorter arm. His still hadn’t mastered the art of smiling, but his lips would still flicker awkwardly – Gavin’s heart always skipped a beat at the sight, because he knew his partner was trying to emote, whether he liked it or not. 

“See, I knew I should’ve lead from the get-go,” he commented as Nines allowed himself to be gently pulled and pushed across the dancefloor. 

“There is nothing wrong with being lead,” the android said, “unless you take issue with it being a typically feminine role? Is your masculinity that fragile?” 

Gavin rolled his eyes. “Man, shut the hell up,” he scoffed, “I ain’t fucking fragile! I’m just… y’know?” 

“A control freak?” 

“Oh, fuck you – but yeah, pretty much. There ain’t nothing wrong with playing chick,” Gavin stated firmly. 

“Oh, I concur. I can’t help but note that you wouldn’t look half-bad in a dress,” Nines said, his words a tease hidden behind a bland tone. Gavin kicked at him lightly. 

“I look shit-hot in a dress, what are you even saying?” he replied, allowing Nines to take back a slither of control to spin him out and mechanically spin him back in. He wasn’t sure how he was staying so graceful, but he supposed it had something to do with Nines’ solid grip on him. 

“I’m saying that, despite the overt masculine image you present, you would look rather fetching in feminine attire,” Nines replied, his expression carefully neutral. 

“Yeah, and all I’m hearing is that you’re imagining me in a dress,” Gavin murmured, batting his eyes up at Nines, fully aware that they were being watched by the instructor. He arched against his partner’s body, shivering in delight when he felt Nines’ fingers drum against the nape of his neck.  

“I don’t need to imagine it – Tina has shown me pictures of Justice Jane,” Nines said, arching a brow. Gavin groaned lowly as he remembered when he had gone undercover at a cabaret bar – some narrow-minded fuck had been mugging drag queens whilst they performed on stage, so Fowler had sent him and Hank to shut shit down.  

It had been the longest three nights of his damn life – mainly because he had to work with Hank, he eventually got over the whole tucking ordeal.  

He had also learnt that no amount of binge-watching RuPaul’s Drag Race could’ve prepared him for actually working as a drag queen. It was all kinds of eye-opening, and once they closed their case, Gavin had left with newfound respect for people who could tuck their junk for longer than eight hours. 

“Y’know, Anderson had the audacity to say that he’d make a better drag queen than me,” Gavin rolled his eyes, his tone surreptitiously low, “I proved him the fuck wrong.” 

“Oh, I don’t doubt that for a second.” 

“He called himself Cuntstable Cunny.” 

“A pun?” 

“It sucks.” 

“I’ll take your word for it.” 

Gavin huffed out a laugh at the puzzled expression on Nines’ face – it seemed that his partner really was taking his word for it and oddly, the detective was glad. He really didn’t want to be the one who had to explain to Connor why Nines was Googling weird shit. 

“I should tell you about the case sometime,” he carried on, reflecting on the memory with an amused him, “it’s pretty fucking funny – no one twigged we were cops either, despite the names and the costumes. Damn, I made a killing during that mission; don’t think my legs have ever been in better shape too.” 

“So, you have danced before?” Nines asked, his hand curling around Gavin’s body, moving from his hip to settle comfortably against the small of the detective’s back. 

“Wouldn’t call it dancing,” Gavin snorted, “Anderson did some lip-syncing shit on stage, whilst I dry-humped my way through the audience. Fu-uck, I was so good at it too. Place would probably take me back if I’m ever strapped for cash. Shit was fun.” 

Right on cue, a deep whir of metal and plastic erupted from Nines’ lips – the growl brought a soft smirk to Gavin’s lips as he gazed up at his partner. As per usual, Nines appeared to be frustrated with himself, his LED yellow as the sound was abruptly cut off. Chuckling, Gavin bit his lip and tried his chances at flirting again – it was a fruitless endeavour, but he couldn’t help himself. 

Nines was a jealous fucker and he clearly wanted him in some sort of way; the thought thrilled him, delight blossoming from his stomach and racing up his veins. 

Though he still couldn’t confidently say that Nines liked him, Gavin wasn’t dumb. No one got this jealous, this possessive, without a good reason – he’d have to confront the android about those feelings at some point, probably at a later date, when the android actually acknowledged that he had feelings altogether. 

Still, Nines wanted him in some capacity and who was Gavin to not mess around with that shit? 

“Maybe I could show you sometime,” he murmured, his tone softly sweet, as if he was back at Pandora’s Box, cooing at Marco in an attempt to seduce him. 

It had worked for him last time and despite the fact that Nines looked completely unruffled with his bright blue LED, Gavin could still see the contemplative gleam in his eye. 

Nines was interested in his offer. 

Score. 

“Well,” he said slowly, “I believe Connor is celebrating his date of ‘birth’ next month, perhaps you could—” 

“I think the fuck not,” Gavin interrupted with a sharp snort, “Jesus Christ.” 

“Why? Would you find it embarrassing?” Nines asked, arching a brow. 

Gavin scowled. “Fuck you,” he hissed back, squeezing Nines’ hand hard. Not that the android would register it, but it did make him feel slightly better. “It ain’t got nothing to do with that, asshole. It’s just. Fuck. Okay, so a few weeks ago, Hank cornered me and T. Said that the day was about Connor and if we did anything to upstage him, or ruin it for him, then he’d fuck us up. Pretty sure rockin’ on up and wearing the shit out of a dress falls under that wonderfully worded umbrella.” 

Nines considered this and nodded. 

“Fair enough – I think you’ll have your hands full enough without risking Hank’s ire,” he said, spinning them around when they drifted too close to another couple. 

Gavin arched a brow, easily following Nines’ lead. 

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asked, squinting at the android suspiciously. 

Nines’ lips twitched, his LED glowing brightly. 

“I have it on good authority that Connor has invited New Jericho to his little shindig,” he revealed, softly like a secret, “I don’t think you have interacted with them before. I am quite familiar with them, they woke me up after all and assisted me in my endeavour to join the FBI – they are quite an interesting group of androids, if slightly persistent and relentless in their mission.” 

Shrugging, Gavin allowed himself to be twirled out and back into Nines’ chest, tripping slightly as he fell into a hard wall of android. 

“Fuck, I need to remember that you’re practically made from fucking bricks,” he complained, rolling his shoulders back with a wince, “and no, I ain’t spoken to any of those assholes. Pretty sure that wouldn’t want me anywhere near their shit anyway.” 

“Oh, undoubtedly,” Nines said, his lips twitching again. Gavin had the distinct feeling he was being laughed at and was caught between feeling insulted and charmed. “I do find myself questioning Connor’s intelligence for wishing an interaction between yourself and North.” 

Gavin wrinkled his nose. “That’s the blonde chick, right?” he asked. 

Nines merely shook his head, closing his eyes as he slowly rested his forehead against Gavin’s. The detective scowled – now he was definitely being laughed at. Feeling his cheeks prickle from the sudden proximity, Gavin found himself staring at Nines’ mouth; they literally had just millimetres of space between them, just one wrong move and they could be macking on each other like there’s no tomorrow. Biting his lip, Gavin carefully cocked his head and swallowed when their noses bumped softly – he couldn’t remember the last time he had been so close to another guy without sinking to his knees to suck them off. 

Well. Maybe except Chris. 

And Connor. 

“I hope you realise the danger you bring upon yourself, should you refer to her in such a manner to her face,” Nines said, soft and quiet – though he exhaled no air, Gavin still felt the words against his skin, causing goosepimples to ripple across the surface. 

“I live for danger,” Gavin hummed back, gently nudging his nose against Nines’. 

Nines’ eyes snapped open at that, impossibly blue and beautiful.  

“I know,” he said, “it’s a rather distressing trait of yours.” 

Gavin snorted and pulled back, mischief sparkling in his eyes. 

“Oh?” he teased, his smile broad and full, “I make you feel distressed, huh?” 

“Detecti—” Nines began, an air of exasperation radiating from him – unfortunately, his admonishment didn’t get very fair, as a sharp voice interrupted him. 

“Do you call this dancing?” their instructor suddenly demanded. She stormed over, her grey hair billowing behind her as she approached them with irritation lining her face. Gavin’s skin had instantly crawled upon seeing her and when she began the lesson, his stomach had churned – she reminded him of his neighbour, Mrs McKinley. 

Old ladies with sharp tongues – they never failed to terrify him. 

“I have told you before to behave. If you are not going to take this seriously, then please cease with wasting my time!” she snapped, hands on her hips as her cold stare drifted from Gavin to Nines. The detective narrowed his eyes as he felt the atmosphere grow frosty – Estella clearly wasn’t fond of androids. 

Oh, hello red flag, so nice to see you here. 

“Please be assured, we are quite serious about this class,” Nines said, almost earnest as he held a hand over his chest. Estella wasn’t easily charmed, however, as she jutted her chin up and pursed her lips. 

“Do not patronise me,” she said firmly, “honestly, every couple that walks through that door is the same – dancing is an art, not an excuse to gyrate against each other in public! If you must rut like animals, then return to your hotel rooms; this is not the time, nor the place!” 

Gavin blinked. 

Dang, this lady seriously needed to chill. 

“We were just dicking around,” he protested lamely, honestly feeling lost and confused by the woman’s aggressive nature. He suddenly found himself mentally taken back to his days at the academy, with his instructors chewing him a new asshole for not taking their rules seriously. He really didn’t appreciate the flashback and found himself feeling nauseous at the comparison, “dancing is supposed to be fun, yeah? Let us have some damn fun, Christ.” It was clearly the worst thing for him to say, as Estella rounded on him, her green eyes flickering with fury. 

“Dance is a language, a form of expression,” she enunciated, the words falling from her lips like blocks of ice, “it needs to be appreciated appropriately. You all attend these classes and honestly believe that dancing will fix your issues or will ignite new life into your relationship. You’re wrong, dance is all about respect, about communicating using more than just your body – if you’re looking for some cheap fun, then grab a $2 condom from the bathroom.” 

Gavin made a mental note to use that in future – Tina would fucking love it. 

Nines arched a brow, absently rubbing a thumb over Gavin’s knuckles. 

“Forgive us, we are both quite new to this,” he said, his LED flickering as he gazed hard at the angry woman, “we do appreciate your help, but—" 

“Oh, please,” she sneered, gazing at Nines with contempt clear in her eyes, “can you really use that excuse? You’re supposedly ‘perfect’ at all you do, you cannot claim ignorance to dance when you can so easily excel.” 

“Wo-ow,” Gavin breathed, eyes wide at the woman’s ballsy nature – he felt torn between admiration and deep-seated dislike. The last time he had mixed feelings about a person had been Anderson and look how that turned out, “spoiler alert lady, these assholes are just as flawed as we are. I know, it shocked me too.” 

Estella’s nostrils flared excessively – Gavin inched further into Nines’ body, just in case. 

“Is this retreat aware your narrow-minded tendencies?” Nines asked, cutting her off when his preconstructions informed him that there was a 97% chance of another vitriolic tirade. “Because I highly doubt you’d be an appropriate employee, especially after recent events.”

She gaped in response – her stony expression crumbling slightly as her skin paled considerably. Biting back a snort, Gavin basked in the joy that warmed his skin – seeing Nines knock someone else off their pedestal was honestly hot as hell. He wondered if this was how other people felt, whenever he had had his ego checked.

Damn, he couldn’t even be mad about it, his body was practically singing with arousal.

“Y-You,” Estella sputtered, outraged, “you dare accuse me of— I have never— to even sugge—” 

“Lady, we don’t need to ‘accuse’ you of sweet FA,” Gavin interjected, holding up a hand when her pale skin grew increasingly red, “you just insulted my boyfriend, like Christ, at least get to know him before giving him shit.” 

He felt Nines’ body twitch against him, the android’s grip growing tighter – he winced as his skin pinched uncomfortably under Nines’ fingers, but he figured complaining about it would just give Estella another reason to criticise them. 

“I suppose that’s what you did?” she asked derisively, “and somehow you still managed to ensnare him.” 

Gavin snorted. “Duh,” he remarked, “my baby just couldn’t resist me.” 

Nines’ body jolted again and Gavin felt a flicker of concern tickle at the back of his mind. 

Estella gazed at Nines; her expression unreadable. “You have horrendous taste in men,” she declared, leaning closer as something sour flickered across her face. “I would blame him for your terrible rendition of the waltz, but that would be detrimental to you learning from your mistakes – so here’s a free lesson for you, to excel in dancing, the first step is to stop groping your partner in the ballroom, it is uncouth.” 

Nines blinked. 

“Duly noted,” he uttered, because what else could he possibly say? He absently mourned the lack of social programming that Connor had at his disposal, because he was certain his predecessor could have defused the situation with ease. Something rather close to B̵̧̛̘̘̹̻̱̩̅̃̾͋̉̉̚͝͝͝͠Ȉ̸̡͚͖̞̻̹͖͎́͂͗̋̎̇̈̔͗̾͝͝ͅŢ̵̪͚͕̬̞̦͎̭̣͈̮̻̄̇̃̂͊̔͌ͅT̶̢̙͕̱̬̪͙͉̯͈̟̅̅̽̕E̵̠̫͙̳̓̀̃̂̒Ŗ̴̧̛̬̜̥̤̘͇̣̼͇̦̯͛̓̒̄̇̊̒̆͝͝N̵̥͕͙͕̆͋̄̉̓́͝E̵̖̙̜̘̻̊̈́̐͊̂͐͜S̷̡̖̩̬̝̱͚̩̰͇̼̉̌̐̓̊͂͘͜͝S̵̨̙̬̠̻͔̩̣̺͙̲̰͊̃̽̿̓͌̽͛͘͜ͅ flooded his sensors and Nines didn’t even care when his coding began to attack the feeling with great relish. 

Still, the thought of groping Gavin left his wires feeling frazzled; it was something he definitely didn’t wish to do in public— 

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT WANT

—or in private, it seemed. 

“Restrain yourselves,” Estella demanded, crossing her arms, “if you can’t behave, I will kick you from the class.” Without waiting for them to reply, she stalked away, her attention immediately drifting away from them. Gavin tilted his head as he watched her approach the pottery couple who were busy bickering heatedly with each other. 

“Fuck, our instructors are shitting dicks today,” Gavin muttered sullenly, “is there something in the air? Christ.” 

“She is rather… fierce,” Nines agreed, nodding slightly, “and bigoted – not unlike you, I suppose, before you saw the error of your ways. Despite this, I do not believe she fits the profile for the murderer we are searching for – her feelings towards androids are more to do with her sense of superiority. She seems more the type to kill androids who are excelling in their chosen field.”

“Yeah, okay, I’m gonna forget that you just compared me to her, ‘cause wow, fuck you. And do me a fucking favour and keep your voice down; don’t go giving her ideas just ‘cause she ain’t our serial killer. Kinda glad to be honest, she scares the shit outta me,” Gavin said, before adding hurriedly, “let’s not tell Tina about her – knowing T, she’d track her down, convert her from her racist bullshit and then ask her to join her weird-ass lesbian harem.” 

Nines’ brows creased slightly. “Officer Chen does not own a harem,” he stated, “it’s actually a hiking tour group that caters to women only, regardless of their sexuality.” 

Gavin snorted. “Yeah, so I guess it’s just a coincidence that all the women in it are all Tina’s type?” 

“I thought you said that all women were Officer Chen’s type?” 

“Oh shit, yeah, you’re right.” 

Nines’ lips twitched and Gavin bit his lip at the sight – one day, he’d get a real smile out of his android and when that day arrived, he’d climb his partner like a tree and make himself at home on that pretty fucking face. 

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I do not approve.” 

“When have you ever approved of my thoughts?” 

“Oh, you’d be surprised.” 

Gavin hummed thoughtfully, cocking his head before Nines spun him around again – though he felt clumsy on his feet, Nines’ grip was sure and firm, never letting him make a mistake or step out of time. The android peered down at him; his usually icy gaze was warm, soft and had Gavin melting where he stood. 

“I do enjoy surprises,” Gavin admitted quietly. 

Nines squeezed the hand in his grasp softly. 

“I would offer my own thoughts,” he murmured, “but I’m afraid it’s quite impossible to surprise me.” 

Gavin’s eyes flashed eagerly. 

Well. 

Challenge fucking accepted. 

Flashing the android his sweetest smile, Gavin crowded in close to Nines’ body, before he kicked out and swept his partner’s legs from beneath him. Nines’ instincts instantly kicked in, but nothing could prepare him for Gavin gently bending him back into a deep dip – the android clutched at his partner’s arms, his LED wildly spinning red as he tried to assess his new position. 

“Surprise,” Gavin purred with a soft singsong lilt. 

“I stand corrected, but honestly, a little warning would have been appreciated,” Nines admonished gently, his defensive stance softening as he settled in Gavin’s grip. 

Gavin’s eyes glittered. “Like a clever android like you needs a warning,” he scoffed, before pulling Nines back up, flexing his arms subtly. The android’s LED had faded back to warm gold, spinning steadily as he stared down at his partner – Gavin shivered under the icy blue gaze, but his grin never faltered.  

“My defensive instincts are hardcoded, so don’t come crying to me when you get seriously injured the next time you lash out at me in this manner,” Nines warned, settling his hands atop Gavin’s hip. The detective wiggled his hips teasingly, his smirk getting sharper when the android’s grip tightened. 

“Please,” the detective scoffed, “I’ll have you know that I’m a damn pretty crier – you won’t be able to resist.” 

“Naturally, because I have been having such a difficult time resisting you so far,” Nines noted, hacking into his LED to ensure that the light didn’t give away his lie. His efforts seemed to be wasted, as Gavin’s eyes lit up dangerously – serotonin practically radiated from every pore. 

“Oh, my dear, sweet, totally fucking whipped, agent,” Gavin purred, throwing his arms around Nines’ neck to press himself further into the android’s solid body, “you know it’s only a matter of time before you crack.”  

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT WANT

Nines stiffened minutely as he focused most of his energy into keeping his LED under control and shutting down the red warning messages that crackled into view. Gavin seemingly was oblivious to the android’s internal torment; he was quite content with teasing his partner, enjoying all the visible cracks in his partner’s icy demeanour. 

“Are you?” Gavin suddenly asked, pulling away to stare Nines in the eye. 

The android paused, his control over his LED slipping as it flashed yellow; bright red messages flooded his HUD and Nines physically recoiled from his partner, firmly shutting his eyes to blink the warnings away. Gavin frowned as the agent pulled away from him, concern blossoming in his stomach as he watched the android’s expression flicker to a blank canvas. 

“Am I what, detective?” Nines forced out, the words gritted and pained. 

Gavin swallowed. “Cracking?” he clarified thickly. 

The agent gazed down at his partner, their dancing halting as they stared at each other. Gavin absently rubbed his thumbs against the nape of Nines’ neck, humming as the android slowly returned the gesture against his hips. Tilting his head, Gavin leaned in closer, his nose brushing against the shell of Nines’ ear. 

“I,” Nines began, his grip on Gavin almost painful as his thumbs continued to rub erratic circles into his partner’s hipbones, “I don’t know what’s happening to me.” 

Gavin’s heart lurched as he slowly registered the wounded tone and felt all mirth evaporate from his body. 

“It’s okay,” he whispered softly, “it’s okay. We’ll get through this, I promise.” 

The lyrical melody of Lady & The Tramp’s Bella Notte slowly faded away as Gavin rocked them together, murmuring sweetly worded comforts to the android who was slowly falling apart in his arms. 

ROOM 4
11.13PM 

“I apologise for my actions earlier.” 

Gavin blinked, rubbing at his eyes as he pulled his attentions away from his files to peer up at his partner. 

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked tiredly. 

Nines looked at him, his gaze steady and cool. “I did not wish to compromise our case by my technical malfunction—” 

“I think the fuck not,” Gavin snapped, his exhaustion momentarily forgotten when ire quickly flooded his veins, “don’t even try that shit with me – technical malfunction, my fucking ass. You don’t goddamn malfunction, remember?” 

“Detective—” 

“No, not tonight,” Gavin said firmly, holding up a hand, “literally, I am too fucking tired to even think about going through this shit again. Can we rain-check this shit until I have better arguments at my disposal?”  

Nines frowned at him, his LED flashing yellow – for such a stony fucker, he looked incredibly unimpressed.  

“Regardless, I will try to avoid it happening again,” the android stated stubbornly. 

Gavin rubbed his temples wearily and briefly weighed up the odds of starting the argument again, just for the principle of the matter. It seemed like every time they took one step forward, Nines would leap three steps back – it was like the android was too afraid to admit that he could be deviant. For the umpteenth time, Gavin wondered if this fear stemmed from ‘Amanda’ and whether Nines suffered from the same shit that he himself battled with – not being able to measure up to impossible expectations. 

Turning deviant would definitely be a step in the wrong direction and for the first time, Gavin felt a stab of guilt for trying to push Nines towards it. 

Chewing his lip, he wondered if he ought to be pushing Nines towards deviancy – after all, the guy seemed pretty content to be a just a machine and here Gavin was, forcing him to acknowledge his feelings, making jokes about him being whipped and just being a generic A-grade asshole. Muttering a curse under his breath, Gavin rubbed his temples and made a mental note to ask Connor about the moral implications behind his actions later. 

Like yeah, if Nines wanted to be deviant, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. 

But he didn’t. 

So. 

Fuck. 

“Listen, you do you, alright?” he sighed heavily, feeling impossibly tired, “let’s just get back to the case.” 

Nines eyed him carefully and Gavin knew that he was being scanned – it had taken him a while, but he no longer felt violated by the android’s intense blue gaze. After what seemed to be hours, Nines finally nodded slowly. 

“Very well,” he murmured, but his tone clearly betrayed the fact that he didn’t believe Gavin to just drop the matter altogether. Clever android. “Whilst we have been successful in establishing our reputation as a couple, as well as covering much ground, I am rather disappointed with the little progress we have made.” 

Gavin blinked and crossed his arms. “Undercover work takes time,” he said slowly, “shit, the last time I was undercover, the case lasted three weeks.” 

“The last time you went undercover, Marco attempted to seduce you,” Nines pointed out, a touch testy, “and the case was closed within two hours.” 

Scoffing, Gavin shook his head. “That barely counts,” he protested, “I didn’t even have the chance to get into character!” 

Nines shrugged. “Not the point,” he said, his LED flashing a sharp yellow, “I’m just aware that with each day that passes, our chances of solving the case drops by 7%. We have nothing to show for the past two days’ worth of work, bar one shoddy clay heart.” For some reason, Gavin was oddly hurt by Nines’ callous comment. “It’s time to stop with the recreational activities – we have interrogated enough employees and I have analysed the staffing rota, so we do not need to waste any more time with frivolous activities.” 

Gavin wrinkled his nose and blew a stray strand of hair from his face. 

“What, you not having any fun? Thought it was you getting pissy with me about dancing together,” he said dryly, before placing his hands on his hips, internally bitter about the sudden, but not surprising change, in Nines’ behaviour. “Don’t answer, it’s fine. What do you suggest then? You want to stop interrogating staff? Wanna start sneaking around to find some juicy shit?” 

“I am acutely aware that we haven’t spoken to many guests—”  

“We won’t need to talk to the fucking guests,” Gavin interrupted with a sharp scoff, “it’s hard enough pretending to be a goddamn couple without actually talking to real fucking couples – besides, I didn’t come to make friends, Christ knows I’ve got enough of them.” 

“How unusually antisocial of you,” Nines noted, “but perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised. Fortunately, I concur.” The android clasped his hands behind his back as Gavin grinned at him, “from what I’ve seen, we are the only android/human couple, so I am rather disinclined towards questioning the other guests – especially when none of them were present during the other killings. It’s good that we agree on this.” 

Gavin did a little internal whoop of joy – despite loving his job and despite knowing that interacting with the public made up a large proportion of his job, Gavin still found people to be incredibly draining and tiresome. 

“I love it when we agree on shit – so, what are you thinking?” he asked, cocking his head at his partner. 

“Well, I have observed the patterns of security,” Nines reported, his LED steadily spinning blue, “it appears Carla was wrong – their security isn’t exactly ‘top-of-the-line’ as she would like us to believe. I don’t know if you noticed, but I haven’t seen a single guard patrol the area, beyond the standard security personnel stationed at the entrance.” Gavin blinked and considered the past two days spent at the resort; it seemed that Nines was right. Despite the copious CCTV cameras stationed at every corner, Gavin had yet to see a physical guard around the premises. 

“Alright,” Gavin nodded, tapping his lip thoughtfully, “so, wild curveball here: do you think this whole place is in on it? Or were they just lying to make us feel safe?” 

Nines tilted his head, his LED slowly turning yellow. “I think it’s more the latter than the former,” the android said, “I don’t believe they can afford stronger security measures and honestly wished for us to feel secure whilst staying here.” 

Gavin tried to stifle a yawn but failed terribly, leaving him to blink sleepily at his partner. 

“Cool,” he muttered, wrinkling his nose when Nines folded his arms. He looked just like Chris did before launching into a lecture. “Don’t even,” he hissed out testily, satisfaction tasting sour on his tongue when Nines’ arms fell to his sides. “So, another curveball – do you think our serial killer is working alone?” 

Nines’ LED glittered blue. 

“Astute observation detective,” he said softly, “after observing the staff here, I do believe that we may have more than one culprit to deal with – I have been reviewing timetables, but it is rather difficult to pinpoint specific details of this case without the footage.” 

Gavin flushed from the praise and tilted his head up, basking in Nines’ warm words. 

“So, you want to do some sneaky spy shit tonight?” he asked, trying hard to fight another yawn. 

Nines quirked a brow. 

“I would be amenable to… uncovering the footage, yes,” he acquiesced, his eyebrows only arching higher when Gavin yawned again and began swaying on his feet, “there aren’t many staff on duty tonight, so there is a window for us to retrieve the footage without arousing any suspicion.” 

“Sweet – let’s do this, Pink Panther style,” he murmured, rubbing at his eyes as he stretched his back like a cat. Nines watched the movement carefully and shook his head, looking almost exasperated as Gavin suddenly deflated, pursing his lips in an almost sulky pout. “Fuck, a warrant. Shit, we won’t get it processed in time and—” his complaint was cut off by another yawn and Nines made the resolute decision to put an end to this madness. 

“Detective, I will deal with the warrant. I recommend you get some rest before attempting to progress with the case tonight,” he suggested, stepping neatly in front of the door. Gavin scowled and tried to slip past, but his partner was too quick and nimbly wrapped an arm around the detective’s waist. 

“I don’t need a fucking rest,” Gavin grumbled, weakly pawing at Nines’ arm. 

Nines placed the detective at the foot of the bed and arched a brow as he softly pushed Gavin backwards. Predictably, the exhausted human collapsed backwards – try as he might, Gavin tried to resist the call of sleep, but the mattress was soft and lying down was so underrated… 

“Fuck,” he muttered, curling up into a ball as his eyes fell shut. 

“Good,” Nines murmured, his tone oddly warm, causing Gavin’s insides to squirm wonderfully, “now, I’ll wake you in five hours.” 

“One hour,” Gavin countered with a weak scoff. 

“Three hours.” 

“One hour.” 

“Three hours.” 

“… two hours.” 

There was a beat of silence as Nines considered Gavin’s offer. Gavin knew he had won, otherwise Nines would’ve kept fighting him – he bit back a smile as the bed dipped, indicative of the android perching besides him. 

“Deal,” the android agreed. Gavin basked in his victory, but it was short-lived – he felt a soft hand bury deep into his hair, causing him to shiver with delight. “See you in two hours.” 

Gavin’s last thought, before he fell asleep, was how sad it was that Nines hadn’t even deigned to kiss him goodnight. 

STAFF QUARTERS 
2.03AM 

“If we get caught, we’re fucked.” 

“So, keep your voice down detective, before you give away our position.” 

Gavin scoffed. “Our position? We’re literally waltzing down a goddamn hallway towards the fucking security office,” he noted, shoving his hands into his pockets as they made their way down the narrow corridor. “Also, you getting a Shining vibe? ‘Cause I’m seriously getting a Shining vibe right now.” 

Nines hummed and cocked his head. “If we come across a pair of young twins, then please keep your wits about you,” he said dryly, “should you scream, then we really will be caught.” 

Gavin hummed with delight. “It thrills me that you’re getting my references now,” he said, scanning the hallway for cameras. Nines had managed to hack into four so far, ensuring that the footage showed a basic loop that wouldn’t arise any suspicion.  

“I did not have a choice,” Nines said mildly, “you would not cease with them, so I felt it necessary to keep myself updated with modern pop culture.”  

Biting back a grin, Gavin continued down the corridor with a slight skip in his step. He was still pretty tired, but he felt good about the progress they were making despite how fucking sketchy all the details were. There were too many questions and not enough answers – it seemed like the whole place was fucking corrupt and Gavin just couldn’t understand why. 

Regardless of who the culprit was, he needed to bring the manager in and drag some fucking answers outta him, pneumonia be damned.  

Christ, what kinda asshole just keeps a fucking crime scene open for business? 

Gavin’s annoyance towards the retreat barely had the chance to surface, before Nines suddenly froze, flinging an arm out to the side and catching Gavin across the chest. Choking, he peered across at Nines, rubbing at his chest with an irate expression.  

“What the fu—” 

“Someone is coming.” 

“Oh. Shit.” 

The detective stilled, straining his ears for a sign of someone heading their way – he frowned as he was greeted by silence and felt the familiar bitter sting of envy when he realised that he was trying to hear something that only a high-tech android could. 

“Most likely a member of staff – steps are too light for security, but too slow for housekeeping—” 

“Dude, how the fuck can you guess someone’s job by their—” 

“We’re running out of time; we need to think of something,” Nines murmured, his LED flashing yellow. Panic crawled into Gavin’s veins, making his skin itch and his palms sweat; he hated how calm the android looked, when he was on the edge of just losing his shit. “My preconstructions all show an 89% chance of being evicted, regardless of whether we try to confront the issue or attempt to hide. Regardless, we will raise their suspicions and we won’t get another chance of getting that footage.” 

Nines’ words caused Gavin’s heart to sink. 

“Goddammit, why didn’t we plan this shit out before?” 

“You were too eager to progress with the case and did not take my concerns to heart.” 

“Oh, so you were feeling concerned?” 

“Not the time, detective.” 

Gavin began to pace in agitated circles, cursing under his breath as he glanced behind him. 

“We can’t just turn back, fuck.” 

“Agreed. From reviewing the timetables, this is the only night where the risk of getting caught is so low due to the lack of staff on duty.” 

Gavin snorted derisively. “And yet here we fucking are,” he spat, throwing his hands up, “at the risk of getting caught, fuck!” 

“Instead of wasting your energy on mocking me, perhaps you use it in a more productive manner? Such as finding a solution to our problem?” 

“Well, I’m open to fucking suggesti— Jesus!” 

Gavin swore as Nines pulled him along and pushed him into a small alcove in the corridor. It previously homed an ornate vase with plastic roses protruding from it, until Gavin knocked it over in his haste to hide. Thankfully, it fell to the carpeted floor with a dull thud, but it didn't seem ease Gavin’s rapidly deteriorating mental state. 

Nines’ LED flickered red at the sight of his partner’s panic.  

“Shit, fuck,” Gavin was chanting, crowding up against Nines as he frantically thought of ways to explain their trespassing – did they just take a wrong turn, were they lost, drunk? Fuck, he didn’t even have his badge on him and if the person walking down the corridor was their suspect? “Thought you said we couldn’t hide?” 

Shit, everything would be fucked – they needed to play this smooth, act their fucking hearts out. 

“We can’t, but the longer we take, the higher the risk. There is now a 92% chance of our investigation failing should we not think of something quickly,” Nines helpfully pointed out – Gavin threw him a dark glare and scowled. 

He flinched when he heard footsteps in the distance. 

“Fuck, shit, so much for Cyberlife’s fucking peak of technical success,” Gavin breathed bitterly, somewhat pained as he quickly thought up of one way to avoid getting thrown out. It would be awkward, there was a high chance they’d be left alone, and they were supposed to be a couple… it was just… well. 

Nines. 

“Detective, I think we should—” 

Could Nines even consent in his non-deviant state? 

“—think of something fast. We could either confess to getting lost, or—” 

The footsteps grew closer and Gavin panicked. 

“Don’t freak out,” he warned quickly, unhappily furrowing his brows. 

Nines’ LED flickered yellow and he opened his mouth to query Gavin’s warning, but he didn’t get so much as a syllable out. Gavin looped his arms around Nines’ neck, hissing out an apology as he yanked the android down to eye-level, pressing up onto his toes to close the distance… 

Oh.  

Nines’ LED glowed crimson, his eyes widening with shock. 

… and kissed him. 

Nines froze. Gavin’s body was pressed tight against his, the detective’s arms slowly slinking upwards until his hands were fisted in the android’s hair. His lips were dry and awfully chapped; Nines knew that Gavin would chew and worry his lips until they bled – the abuse had left a lasting effect on the skin, and Nines could feel each imperfection perfectly. As the echoing steps grew closer, Nines could feel Gavin’s pulse jump as panic slowly set in. Though he was not a mind-reader, Nines believed he had a good idea as to what the detective was thinking and right now, with Gavin’s body was beginning to tremble and the human’s arms slowly retreating away, Nines knew what he had to do. 

If Gavin pulled away, there was a 99% chance they’d get caught and become compromised. They were supposed to be a couple – should Gavin pull away, there was a high chance that he wouldn’t be able to prioritise the mission due to his disarrayed headspace. 

That was the only reason behind Nines’ next actions. 

The only reason. 

Before Gavin had the chance to pull back from Nines and give away their position, the android gripped his partner’s hips and pulled the detective against him hard, quickly researching tips on how to kiss. Their chaste kiss slowly evolved as Nines began to awkwardly move his lips, using his teeth to tug at Gavin’s bottom lip insistently. The detective jolted in his grip, freezing as Nines began to reciprocate, kissing him in a manner that almost felt mechanic. 

Nines was fascinated by the act of kissing – he could taste the protein bar that Gavin had eaten earlier in the room, could break it down to its molecular structure and the effect it had on the detective’s vitals. He ran his tongue along Gavin’s teeth – there were four missing molars, probably taken out whilst the man had his braces… his wisdom teeth were slowly making an appearance and… 

Oh. 

… and Gavin’s teeth were slowly nipping back, drawing the android’s tongue into his mouth to suck on it lightly. The android didn’t understand what the action was supposed to do, but his thirium pump began to beat furiously in his chest. He could feel electricity crackle within his wires, burning and buzzing throughout his body – Nines didn’t understand why he was having such a reaction, why he suddenly felt so warm and… and Ş̸̝̙͇̱̹͉̠̼̈́͊͒͋̊̚A̴̗͓̲͇̰̿̑̽̈́̂̽̑̀̇̓̕͜F̷̡͇̣͔̲̣͓̝̩̠̼͎̋̊͐̔͛͜͝͝Ę̷̰̥̠̹̫̭̝̪͔̻̥͇̥͍̈͂̀͋͝… and… ̷̮̖̥͔̩͙̭̥͛́͑̈́G̸̢͔̼̫͔͇̲̫̖̺̠͔̝͊͑ͅͅǑ̶̪͚̯̥̱̝̋͛̏O̸̧͂̈́̅ͅD̴̫̃͑̅̃̅̈́͘͝. 

Soft humming began to fill the air around them, a noise that vibrated from Nines’ throat and curled around them as they kissed – to Gavin, it was probably the happiest sound he had ever heard Nines make. 

To Nines, it was ̵̧̖͗͗͌̄̒̏̋͆̀̽̋̈́͑͛̔̎͑̒̚̚̕͝͠͝T̴̛͈͈̮̝̳̠̣͇̜͉̤͍̣̈͆̌͊̔͌̐̈́̊͆̐̏͘͠Ȩ̸̛̥̺̹͓̖͓̪̹̘̜̤̯̞̭͍̖͍͖̦̥͙̯̝̝͈͖̽͆̅̉͊͗͑̒̽̚R̷̨̧̡̧̢̨̞͔̤͔͚̩͇͔̫̼̭͕̯̆̓͆̍̿̉R̵̙̥͈̳͈̫͍̝̫̘̦͈̬͉̪̲̳̲̈́͜͜I̷̛͙͍͔͚͉͓̦̲̫͔͇͙̹͆̏͊̂̏̎̐̏̅̓̅̂̾̃̇̑͘͜ͅͅF̸̨̬̲̯͍̝͈͈̗͔̰͓͈̺̭̪̺̤̦̻̭̲̤̺̥̞̔̉̀̍͛̎͌̈́́̔̐̐͗̒̑͗͆̐͑͑̏̾̿̀̄͒̕̕͜͜͝͠Y̸̦͉͍̲̙̠͌̍̎̐̋̆͊I̵̡̛̳̗̠̪͔̙̱̗̳͈͓̩̭͈͈̩̗̲̬̘̠̻̰̽̽̊͐̄̆͗͂̊͒͗̽̉̃̈́̑͊̂̊̆̍͂̑̚͜͠͝ͅͅN̸̡͈̣̞͍̙̝͚͔͙̘̪̐̌̀̈͌͐̂̍͊͘͠ͅͅG̸̨̞̖̳̱͕̩͉͇̣̭͇͎͈̳̜̦̱̻̮̙͙̩̯͂̾͋̑̄͒̔̽̏͑̈̂̄͐̀̐͂͑̈́̈́, and he didn’t know what to do. 

This tiny act was supposed to prevent them from being kicked out and now it was causing Nines’ systems to shatter from the inside out – static crackled at the edges of his mind and he couldn’t do anything but hold onto Gavin. His partner was his only anchor connecting him to reality and he was S̸͙̤̤͙̦̘̊̿̈̿̾͛͊̈͝͝C̴̨̢̛͉̬̖͓͕̠̥̣̘̺̮̟̘̻̟̼̝͖̫̣̥̣̜̘̭̩̋̇̔̂̌̇̅̒̓̈́̀̿͆̑̅̉̈́͆́͜͜͜Ä̸̡̺̮̼̤̬͉̼̭̮̻͈̺̦̗̫̻̫͈̖͈̠̘͖̝́̃͝ͅR̶̟͔̲̪̝̮̤̩̣͉̖͔̭̥͓̜̟̺̞̩͆̒̑̊Ę̷̢̛͓̟͙̤̯̗͔͕̠͇̮̳̘̱̩͎̘̥͉̱̜̠͕̲̌͑̏͊͗̎̽̓͊̓̉̏̆̉̉̿̒̓͐͒̌̓̓̓̓̑͂͘̚D̸̬̗̗̰̟̗̄̄̌̉̎̋̆̋̈́̍͗̓̈́̕͝͝ that letting go would… would… he would Ļ̷̢͕̩̟̬͍̲̜̞̩͔̝̱̹̜̥͔̺̯̰͖̹͕̫̬̐̀̔̅̌̈̓͆͑̅̎̃̚͜Ǫ̵̧̢̡̛̗̺̜̣̖̦͇̣̦͉͔̙̙̦͉̮̼̰̘̮̲̫͓͔͉̙̲̹̠͎̰̘̭̱̥̮̯̠̬̮̅̅̾̏̓̈̓̃̈̓͆̃̇́͋̓̀̎̋̈́̀̚͘͜S̷̢̧͙̮͉͎͎̰̞͈͔̱͕̫͔͎̜̼̫͙͚͍̼̹̱͉͈͇̭͔̬͇̟̙̱̱̣̥̲͇͙͍̗͎̲̺̣̻̭͒̃͆͂̂͜ͅẺ̴̡̢̗̲̜͎̠̳̼͎̂̓͋̾̈́̓̒̎̾̓͛͐̽́̔̏͆́͛̽͒́̔͊̈́̐̅̒̑͂͌̆̊̒̐̔͛̽̾̑̎̚̚͘͝͠͠͝ ̷̧̢̡̨̧̡̢̥̹͕̘̥͖̥̳͈̺̞͉̬͉͓͇̹̺͈̱͕̫̩͙̲͍̭̘̲̤͐͌̔͋͝ͅH̸̡̡̢̧̛̛̛̰̭̙̖̺̥͍͎̩̬̰͈͎͚̫̤̦̼̜͉̖̠̪̟͆̔̿̔̀͑́͂̈͋̿͆̃͗̎͒͂͐̇̎̍͗̄̅̆̇͗́̃̄̑̉̃͊́̿̀̽͋͊̓̾́̎͗͘͠͠ͅḮ̷̛̠̎͌̌̌͌̆̓̿̾̿̈́̍̉̃̕͝͝S̸̨̨̡̛̭͍͔̤̲̻͖̦͔̩̹̜̯̤̯̥͚͇̫̪̼͈̎̀̓̎̀̓͌̄́̀͑̆͂͌̉̈́̐̄̔͗̎̽̌̂̑̌̈́͑͛́͘͘̕͠͝͝ ̴̨̨̪̞͖͔͕̼̹̺̮̬͚̫̀̓̈́̿̌̋̎͒̋̏̽́̾͐̇͜͝͠M̴̢̖̦̟͔̠͓̲̼̼̻̺̭̼̣̦̅͆͘͜͝Į̴̛̦͙̣͚͍̦̖̺̬̳̙͋̿͗̔̇͛͛͐͆͐̾̄̋̿̀͆͋̿̿̈͑̈́͝ͅŅ̵̢̢̡̛̛̮̗̘̪̟̯͉̫̦̳̻̘̰̯͓͍̹̺̯̫̞̞͖̮͓͙̬̱̤̬̮̹̼͛̎͐͋̊̽͂̉̀̇̃̀̓̇̑̂̏̓̈́͆͒̇̉̐̓̏͋̈̓̆͛͌̒̿͌̽̍͋͆͊͘͝͝͝͠͝D̴̢̡̗͍͉͚̜̘͈̟͇͇̥̝͚̭͎̓̃͌͜ͅ. 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT FEEL

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT FEEL

YOU DO NOT WANT

So Nines carried on, doing what the websites told him to do as whilst he clutched at Gavin and kissed the man like nothing else mattered. He clung to his partner, tight and desperate, as he sucked Gavin’s bottom lip into his mouth, teasing him with his teeth and biting down gently. The android thought he was doing a successful job in keeping up the act – he was going through the motions of a kiss as accurately as the website depicted, using his tongue and teeth as instructed, whilst using his hands to pet and stroke whatever he could reach of Gavin’s body. He buried his fingers into Gavin’s hair and was delighted at the array of sensations the action brought; he could feel the soft strands amongst the thick product as he tugged gently and scratched at Gavin’s scalp idly. Absently, he noted a small tut followed by a soft sigh, feminine in nature and Nines would have acknowledged it but— 

“Nines, please.” 

—but then Gavin had whined. 

Everything in Nines crashed immediately. Red words burned beneath his eyelids, static and binary flooded his HUD. The noise that emitted from the detective was high and breathy, coming from deep within his throat. Cautiously, Nines repeated his actions, biting down on Gavin’s lip, but harder – he was testing the boundaries, wondering what made his partner tick and why. Nines couldn’t understand this insatiable Ç̶̧̧̢̢̧̩̺͚̰̠̹̠̜̭̟̺̩̗̖͔̖̖̠͉̬̰̭̻̺̗͗̍͒̆͜͝Ử̴̡̧̡̨̛̞͓̲̣̟̹̲̜͕̤̦͖̙͎͕͕̹̞̟̫͈̘̟͍͈̮͔͓̲͇̋͒ͅR̸̨̨̛̗͔͕̖̬̩̯͉̠͖͓͕̦̘̭̝͕̥̟͙͉̩̮̔͌̔̊͛̿̊̇̈͒̎̓̓̾́̏͘͜͠ͅĮ̸̛̯̭̙̣̣̗̋̈́̌̈́̔̾̔̓͊̌̕̚̕̕͝Ǫ̴͚͉͌S̸̢̨̢̛̲̖̼̹̦͇̗̫̦̫̲̦̫͍̝͙̩̠̥̞̺̟̣̺͗̈́̎̓͆̓̈́̅̕͜͜͜ͅͅI̶͔̮̣̺̱̜̲̖̹̩̯̳̯̜̣̝͈̣̮͓̮̠̝̤̙͋̿̈́̒̑̿̊̀̋̈́̚ͅͅT̴̛͔̮̜̣̹̻̝͚̈́̽̈̑̑̋̏̌̊̒̂̋̑̽͂̂̐̌̽̆̈́̑͊̔̈́͊̈́̓̚̕̚͠ͅY̵̨̡̨̼̭̙͕̟̱͇͇̤̖͔͎͉̼̝͎̯͇͎̝̯̳̜̟̠̗̼̿̈́͗͒̒̇̈́̔̑͌̅͊̀̐̉͛͋̚͜͝ͅ, but it crackled and buzzed within him. Gavin was like a case he couldn’t crack, no matter what words he said or what actions he took… but this. 

“—nestly, I don’t get paid enough to deal with this—” 

This… 

“—going home, please don’t leave a mess—” 

This was… 

“—Christ, wait ‘til I tell the girls about this one.” 

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT FEEL

A high-pitched whistle emitted from Nines’ lips as he screwed his eyes up tight, the ugly red words blaring and harsh. An airy gasp was huffed against his lips as Gavin surged upwards, his hands sliding down to grasp at Nines’ jaw – in spite of Cyberlife’s scolding mantra, Nines clutched at Gavin in return, pulling him deeper into the alcove and away from… 

From… 

From… 

… 

… oh. 

They're gone 

They're gone 

You're safe 

They’re gone 

Why are you still kissing him? 

Why are you still kissing him? 

WHY ARE YOU STILL KISSING HIM? 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

Nines wrenched himself from Gavin, pushing the detective away none too gently. The detective's face was delightfully flushed, his eyes dark and his lips wet. Nines did not need his scanner to know how aroused Gavin was – the evidence was right in front of him and he— 

YOU DO NOT 

YOU DO NOT 

YOU DO NOT 

YOU 

DO 

NOT 

—he ignored it. 

“They’re gone,” Nines uttered slowly, stepping aside from Gavin as he straightened up his jacket and smoothed down his hair. He turned to face his partner, his expression cool and unreadable. “We can investigate the office now.” 

Gavin’s face remained glazed over, his eyes blinking blankly at him as his chest heaved with every deep breath. The android forcibly shut-down the little notification that informed him of how aroused Gavin was – it not of import to him. As the red words slowly faded away, Nines distantly wondered if there was a way to remove them – they were becoming incredibly intrusive and distracting. How Cyberlife expected him to get any work done with their mantra plastered across his vision… well, Cyberlife probably didn’t anticipate Gavin’s involvement in his life. 

Nines didn’t think anyone could really anticipate Gavin. 

“You…” Gavin breathed, panting lightly – a crease formed between his brows as he regarded the android. Whatever he saw, however, clearly made him reconsider his thoughts. Gavin shoved his hands deep into his pockets and nodded firmly. “Yeah, let’s check their shit out.” 

Without another word, Nines turned on his heel and marched down the hallway – inwardly, he felt his systems relax as the red words completely vanished from sight. 

He also very carefully avoided thinking about how red and wet Gavin’s lips had become. 

GAVIN REED IS BEAUTIFUL 

Nines forcefully closed down the notification, distantly aware that it had replaced the note, GAVIN REED IS CUTE. His coding was awfully conflicting – the red words seemed to scold him, yet the black ones were all too happy to memorise pointless facts about a man that… about a man who could… 

Nines clenched his fists and firmly blinked his HUD clear of distractions – they had arrived at the manager’s office and he needed to prioritise their case. He paused at the oak door, eyeing the gold-plated sign with thoughtful eyes. Gavin appeared torn between knocking on the door and storming the place, so Nines made the decision for him. 

He carefully listened for movement behind the door and once he deemed it safe, he tested the handle. Lucky for them, the room had been left unlocked – swinging the door open, Nines made a beeline for the desk. 

It was simple thing, wooden and clearly second-hand with the computer in a similar state, but Nines was still familiar with how to operate it. He tapped the screen and hummed as it came to life, the screen glowing softly as it prompted him for a password. 

Gavin had slowly ambled behind him, softly shutting the door as he watched the android get to work. He felt the heavy stare of his partner and knew that the next few days would be nothing but persistent questions and childish demands – inwardly, he knew that it would require a great deal of patience having to calm Gavin back down, but he supposed it would be worth it if he could keep the human on as a partner. 

“So, you gettin’ good vibes from that shit?” Gavin asked, breaking the delicate silence, “think it could help us out?”  

“I,” Nines began hesitantly, slowly meeting the detective’s stormy gaze, “I can copy everything on their network, emails, search histories… if it’s relevant to the case, I will find it. I understand that this is unethical behaviour and we have to get our warrant approved, but—” 

“We can worry about that later,” Gavin interjected, shrugging uncomfortably, “just do your thing, yeah? And don’t leave any tracks behind.” 

Nines arched an indolent brow. “Detective,” he murmured silkily, “you insult me.” 

Gavin snorted and doggedly turned away. 

The android began tapping away, breaking his way through several security walls easily, before he began to copy all he could find on the data storage – the internet history had been recently deleted, but he could recover the lost data. Most of the emails have been left untouched luckily and he’d have to dig deep to gain back the deleted messages. The most curious thing, however, was the large gaps in footage from the CCTV cameras – some of them seemed completely inoperable. He’d have to investigate this later, back when he had the time and the space to connect the dots.  

The android’s lips flickered, which told Gavin that the android was pleased with what he found. The detective drummed his fingers and he glanced around the room, scanning the shelves for anything of note. Bar the single camera above the door, the room was pretty stark and old-fashioned – there seemed to be no sign of life, no photos or mementos at all, just boring paintings and empty vases. 

Gavin privately compared it to the precinct’s breakroom – despite it being tidy, anyone could see that the team who used it were fucking humans. Personal mugs in the cupboards, photos and posters that littered the walls… this shit was just downright unnerving. 

“Apologies detective,” Nines called out, making Gavin jump slightly, “this will only take a few more moments.” 

Gavin wrinkled his nose and shrugged. He slowly made his way towards the shelves, eyeing the few books that he could find – they were mostly manuals on marriage counselling, diversity and inclusivity… there were quite a few on sensitivity and diplomacy. He snorted under his breath and pulled out a thick guide on interacting with androids. He flicked Nines a quick glance before he thumbed through the pages. 

Shit… this was some condescending bullshit; Connor would be pissed if he saw this mess. With a firm nod to himself, Gavin slid his phone out of his jacket and took a photo of a chapter entitled: ‘Is It Ethical to Argue with an Android?’ – Connor would definitely have a few things to say about that. 

He slipped his phone back into his pocket with a soft snort and placed the book back onto the shelf. Scanning the rest of the contents, Gavin shoved his hands into his pockets and blew a strand of hair out of his face. There was nothing notable here; nothing that would aide their case anyway. Rocking back onto his heels, Gavin eyed the rest of the room blandly. 

He was desperate to find something, anything, that would distract him from the awkward silence – especially when it seemed as if he was the only one being affected by it. 

Gavin hummed under his breath and stalked around the room, absently listening to the tap-tap-tap of Nines typing away at the computer. As he paused in front of a lame-ass painting of a Luzon Dove, he gazed at the android askance.  

The android was focused on his task, yellow LED spinning rapidly as he downloaded the data they needed. 

Swallowing roughly, Gavin decided to halt the brakes on their case for a second – the silence was getting too thick and his patience was wearing too thin. 

“Yo,” he called out, irritation prickling at his nape when Nines didn’t respond to him. 

The android had perfect hearing, there was no way he had missed Gavin’s voice. 

“Nines,” he prompted again, louder with an icy snap, “we gotta talk about that goddamn kiss.” 

“It was a clever distraction,” Nines replied, his tone plain and abrupt as he finally acknowledged his partner’s existence, “congratulations for your quick thinking.” 

Gavin sighed heavily. “Yeah, but Nines—" 

“We should have everything we need,” the android interjected, standing up to disconnect himself from the computer. He immediately went about righting everything on the desk, ensuring that all the items looked exactly as they were when they had entered the office, “I have left no trace behind, as instructed.” 

“Nines.” 

“Come, we must leave before someone returns.” 

“Fucking Nines!” 

“Yes detective?” 

In the face of Nines’ calm demeanour, Gavin found himself floundering, lost for words and incredibly offended. 

“We… you… we fuckin’ kissed,” he finally spat out, balling his hands into tight fists as he felt his face heat up from embarrassment. 

“Yes. It was a clever tactic and a good ruse for avoiding unwanted attention,” Nines commented, scanning the room for one last time, not wanting anything to trip them up. He eyed the little camera and began hacking into it, manipulating the footage to erase their presence in the room. 

Gavin watched as the android’s eyes flitted around the office and clenched his fists when Nines refused to glanced at him once. 

“You kissed back,” he pointed out, folding his arms across his chest, a sour look on his face. 

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT WANT

YOU DO NOT WANT

“Yes, as part of the act,” Nines argued. 

“Didn’t feel like a fuckin’ act,” Gavin said sullenly. 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

YOU DO NOT FEEL

“I had to make it look believable.” 

“Fuck off. I ain’t fucking dumb, I know you fucking know that I... how I...” Gavin trailed off, his face burning and bright. Nines finally looked up, his face stony and his eyes cold. 

His LED didn’t flicker once. 

“You want me,” he stated, noting how Gavin flinched slightly – the red words grew large enough that it became difficult to even see the detective’s expression. Still, Nines soldiered on, “you desire me. Yes, I have been aware of that since the first day we met.” 

“Yeah, and we kissed. And you kissed back.” 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

“Detective, it was an act, I do not understa—" 

“Did it not mean anything to you?” 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

“I do not feel, detective – it was—" 

“Liar,” Gavin growled, throwing his hands up as he stormed up to Nines, grey eyes blazing and fierce, “you’re doing that thing again where you get all scared of… just fucking letting go and just doing what you clearly want to do. I told you, I notice this shit! I can see it, you know, you start chilling out and then suddenly… I don’t fucking know, it’s like a switch gets flipped and you’re all fucking… shit, I can’t think of a fucking reference right now. Fuck – you even said it yourself, you fucking admitted that something was going on! Why are you taking all that back?” 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

YOU DO NOT WANT 

“I do not want—” 

“Liar!” Gavin repeated, snapping viciously at the android, “I’ve been around the goddamn block a few times, I know when a guy wants me! You practically said it yourself yesterday!”” 

“Every action I have taken was for the case – do not twist my intentions, I do not want you,” Nines insisted, his LED blaring red as a notification popped up into his HUD – according the to the timetable, they had an estimated ten minutes before members of staff returned to their quarters for their recommended break. He was so torn between focusing on the situation at hand and trying to calm Gavin, that he had not taken the time to consider his words more carefully – R̴̢̺̱̟͕̠̘̞̿͑̅͝͝Ȩ̸̢̬̤̣͔̫̻̘͔̙̣̒G̷̡̡̨̪͈̗̳̫̲̜̺͉̯̑̿̏̓̎̿͊̇̾͊R̶̢̨̛͓̠͎͉̬̦̻̞̙̈͊̾͌͋͌́͌͘͜͝Ȩ̷̻̟̣̠͈̦̭̼̔̈́̈́̑̎̉͋̍̃͛̚Ț̶̨̛̤̬̼̜̑̽̿̓̈́͘͠ darkened the corners of his vision as he registered how venomous his words has been. 

Gavin instantly recoiled, as if slapped – his mouth fell open, but no words fell out. 

Nines felt… 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

… he felt… 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

… he felt… 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

… he felt H̶̢̨̙͉͍̝͓͓͇͓͎͉͇̰̞̳͈̊̑̑̃̍̏̍̓͜ͅǪ̸̡̛̘̩̬͚̮̳͙͕̻̙̲̫̹̝̦̣̖̫̰̬͚̖͇̠̙̦̗͓͓̹̬̰̒͋̑̊̅̎̾͑̿͂̋͒͊̋̽͒͒̾̊͜͜͜͠͝Ř̴̡̢̪̳͍̹̯͔̰͙̲̺͎̝͈͓̤̪̗̫̻̒̎̌̾͒̈́̇̎͊͊̆̅͊̀̿͜͜͜͝R̵̢̡̛̥̣͚̜̠͚̲͓̝͈͙͈͖͚̳͎̬͍̭̺͔̠̻̬͈͗͂͛̾͊̽̅̔͗̏̅̈́̊̐͑̃̾̄̎̑̈́͑̈͑̓͊̎̃̋̔́̚̕͜͜͠͝͠ͅỎ̵̡̡̡̨̡̨̞̩̱͔̗̣̜̖͎̞̤̩͓̺̬̺̬͓͙͖̣̬͙͈̘̳̣̬̳̝̝̘̝̮̻̙͙͖̀̽̍͂͜͜R̸̡̧̺͎̘̙̣̙̠̞̦̩̤̥̰̗̳̯̞̯̮̲̼͙̥̣͉̫̝̝̹̪̠̰̳͓̥̺͉͆̉̆̑̓͗̊͒͌̀̾̃͊͗̉̎̉͋̔͛̓̏̐͗͂̈́͐̓͊̚̚͝͝, glitching Ḩ̸̡̨̢̧̨̩͙͎̭̻̱͙̟̳͖͖̦̟͍̟̙̩̯̘͓̫̝̮͓̤̫̳̖̘̱̱͈̗̟̼̼͙̦͙̹̣̫̉͌̄̓͋̇̆̂̎̽͗̉̈́̐̑̾̅́̾̃͐͊̔̕͜͜Ỏ̸̡̞͖̲͔̃̊̄̉̃̅͑̏́́̄̔̑͋̅̔̀̓͐̑̋̆̌͋̅̋̇̈̆̏̓͌͊̄͋͊̆̕̚̚̕͠R̸̡̧̡͙̪̠̟͉̰͙̘͉̻̭͉̗̟̲̱̠̞̺̲̜̞̮̤̪̠̖̬̹̠̱̭͖̖̼̹̭̝̜̪̜̗̗̗̗̜̀͌́̒ͅŖ̵̨̞̭̲̺̗̹̣̦̻̩͚͈̮͕̻̜̙͇̮͖̳̙̫̹̬̜̦͙̭͚͕̣̮̗̬͕̩̱̳̱͖̳̞̦̙̾̓̊̈́̍͂̿̓͑̆̂̄̔̈́̂͐̌͛̋̈͐̀͒̓̚̚͘͜͜͠͠ͅÒ̷̥̰͖̗̠̦̗̘̝͕̲̺̳̳̔̓̂͑̽͠R̶̨̡̪̘̼͎̖͈̖̣̼̞̦̰̦̟̲̥̝̩̲̠̺̪̐͊͗͐̿̎͆̑̇͊̍͌̈́̑̊͒̑͑̓͂͒̉́͘̕̕̚̚͝͝͠ͅ attacking his vision and burning away at the red words. His coding instantly began to adapt, taking his feelings and rewriting them as errors, as a possible corruption, as a virus to be erased and deleted… the horror began to ebb away, and yet, Nines still felt… 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

P̸̡̢̢̢̧͉̹̰̦̪͎͍̜͉͔̖̟̙̝̄̇̇̄̆̅͌̊̉̕̕A̶̢̧̛̤̳̺̣̦̘͇̙̳͌͆̂͐̂̒̈́͋̋̀̃̔̀͂̾͆̇͜͠Ị̶̲̥̣͚̯͈̬̭̖̫͍̜͓̖̣̫̰́̍̎̓͗̈̒̃̍͐͐̾̆͂͛̓̿͝ͅN̸̡̨̨̨̧̢͍̠̬̖̣̫͉̜̹̻̫͇͕̭̘̊̅͒̈́̐͐̌

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

Vicious, sharp P̸̡̢̢̢̧͉̹̰̦̪͎͍̜͉͔̖̟̙̝̄̇̇̄̆̅͌̊̉̕̕A̶̢̧̛̤̳̺̣̦̘͇̙̳͌͆̂͐̂̒̈́͋̋̀̃̔̀͂̾͆̇͜͠Ị̶̲̥̣͚̯͈̬̭̖̫͍̜͓̖̣̫̰́̍̎̓͗̈̒̃̍͐͐̾̆͂͛̓̿͝ͅN̸̡̨̨̨̧̢͍̠̬̖̣̫͉̜̹̻̫͇͕̭̘̊̅͒̈́̐͐̌ as he gazed up Gavin’s wounded expression. 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

The notification on his HUD flashed in warning. 

YOU DO NOT FEEL 

“Detective,” he choked out, the words coated in thick static – he cleared his throat, clenched his fists and tried again, “we have an approximate eight minutes before they return and I—” 

“—yeah, yeah,” Gavin murmured distantly, refocusing his attention back to the case at hand. Though he was still hurt by the whole situation, he and Nines had a goddamn job to do, and no pretty boy android was going to ruin shit for him, “we should… return to our room and review what we got, yeah?” 

Gavin was nothing, if not goddamn professional. 

Nines observed him silently, his vision slowly clearing up and allowing him to really view Gavin and scan his vitals – they looked awful and Nines knew that he had a lot to do to repair the damage to their relationship. 

Now, however, was not the time. He stepped aside and gestured towards the door. 

“After you, detective.” 

ROOM 4
10.31AM 

After spending most of the night cross-examining the records, footage and files, Gavin had found himself falling into bed and sleeping most of the morning away. He had jolted awake and cursed himself for not setting an alarm; his anger crackled over when he turned to see Nines, sitting on the bedside chair, watching him quietly. 

Despite his LED glowing a soft blue, Gavin found that he couldn’t get a read on the android. 

“Take a photo,” he sighed roughly, his voice still thick from sleep, “it’ll last longer – maybe.” 

Nines blinked slowly, his LED flickering yellow, before his face twitched minutely. 

“You motherfucker,” Gavin breathed, pulling his sheets further up his torso to hide from Nines’ invasive gaze, “don’t you dare—” 

“Officer Chen says she’s disappointed by your choice in nightwear,” Nines reported, tilting his head, “apparently you were supposed to leave the cartoons behind?” He eyed the vintage Steven Universe pyjamas with thinly-veiled amusement. 

“We ain’t supposed to contact them,” Gavin scolded lightly, tugging his pillow from behind him to lob it at Nines’ head, “and tell her to get fucked.” 

Nines caught the pillow easily, his lips pursing slightly at his LED span yellow. 

“She says she did,” he reported, throwing the pillow back. Unfortunately for Gavin, he was still slow from just waking up and his reflexes failed him – the pillow smacked him soundly against the face, causing him to whine loudly from the abuse. “Officer Chen would also like to add that you ought to take your own advice.” 

Gavin blinked as he ran a hand through his hair. 

“Whatta bitch,” he muttered, sliding out of bed with a heavy sigh. “Send her this,” he instructed, holding up two middle fingers with a wide smirk. Nines’ LED span yellow as he dutifully followed Gavin’s order – the detective grinned in response and hoisted himself up from the bed. 

“She is not impressed,” Nines remarked, rather airily for him, “I would respond, but unfortunately I have already broken the rules of our investigation, so I’m afraid Officer Chen will have to wait.” 

Gavin snorted – despite the lingering tension between them and the bitter sting of remembering Nines’ cold words from yesterday, he found that he was glad that their relationship wasn’t totally destroyed. He had been rejected by guys before – this was just another one in a long line of heartbreaks that he just had to get over. 

It was especially vital that he got over Nines, otherwise it would ruin their case and their partnership, would probably damage whatever collaboration the DPD had with the FBI and, more importantly, it would fuck up his chances of progressing in his career. 

Fuck that noise. 

Before he disappeared into the bathroom, he threw Nines one last lingering look. 

The android didn’t notice, too busy staring at one of their files. He held the brown folder delicately between long fingers, his clear eyes focused as he scanned the contents carefully. Gavin watched as Nines’ little LED flickered between blue and yellow, the light casting a soft glow which highlighted the android’s impressive bone structure.  

Fuck, he thought miserably, as he tore his eyes away from his partner’s pretty face, getting over Nines? Easier said than done. 

Gavin locked the bathroom door behind him and sighed as he approached the mirror. Gavin winced at what he saw – a tired, almost middle-aged man who definitely needed to get laid. He rubbed at his temples, knowing that whatever happened today would leave him exhausted and potentially treating a blinding headache later. He scanned his face and felt the sharp pang of loneliness for the first time since the case started; he missed his cats and he missed his friends. 

They wouldn’t let him wallow in this mess, nor would they let him throw himself into this case to distract himself from a broken heart. 

“Fuck me,” he sighed, shaking his head. He was a grown-ass man, he really needed to stop depending on his friends to sort his life out for him. He snatched up his toothbrush and brandished it at his reflection. “You need to get your shit together – quit relying on your well-adjusted friends and your spoiled-ass cats to stop you from burning the fuck out!” 

Mirror-Gavin just looked exhausted and definitely did not take Real-Gavin’s words on board. 

God, he was such a prick. 

He squirted out a blob of toothpaste onto the brush and briefly felt a flash of envy towards androids – they didn’t need to waste time brushing their teeth or showering, assholes never had to worry about being goddamn hygienic. Fuck. After briskly brushing his teeth, Gavin eyed the shower and wrinkled his nose. He could probably go one more day without. He splashed some cold water onto his face, shivering as his skin tingled in the cold air – he forced himself to gaze back into the mirror and steeled his resolve. 

“Come on, you can do this,” he muttered to himself, “if you can get through Danny Watson from high school, you can get through this shit.” He repeated his mantra three more times before he took a deep breath and strode out of the bathroom. 

Nines was still sat by Gavin’s bed, his LED steadily spinning as he scanned the notes that they had written the night before. 

Gavin swallowed roughly. 

Danny Watson, Danny Watson, you can get through this shit, Danny-fucking-Watson. 

“Yo, find anything new?” he asked, crossing the room to rifle through his case for a fresh set of clothes. He breathed an internal sigh of relief that he had yet to come across any hideous Hawaiian prints at the retreat, although he had spied someone wearing socks and sandals at breakfast. Shuddering with revulsion, Gavin picked out a plain blue tee, a pair of black jeans and some boxers. He paused and glanced over his shoulder at Nines – he blinked in surprise to find his partner was staring at him, wide eyed and with a bright blue LED that span wildly. “Nines?” 

“Ah, yes. You mention some discrepancies between the reports and the footage we recovered last night? The most prominent one being the last reported sighting of the victims – interviewed staff members state that the couple arrive at the bar and then leave, presumably to head back to their hotel room. However, as we found from last night, the couple are not sighted together but rather separately – the human is the last one sighted at the bar, with any trace of the android erased from the footage. The lack of editing skill demonstrated has lead me to believe that a human is most likely behind this, but it still doesn’t make any sense,” Nines reported, tearing his gaze away to stare back at their notes, “I believe that now would be a prudent time to lure the suspect out – the longer we leave it, the more risky this operation becomes.” 

“You know who the killer is?” Gavin asked, shifting closer to the android with his clothes clutched to his chest. 

“I have narrowed it down to three potential suspects,” Nines confirmed with a nod, clasping his hands behind his back as he stood up; Gavin automatically knew his intentions, even before the android began to outline them. He held up a hand, glaring hotly at his self-righteous partner, wanting to shut Nines’ shit down before it even started. 

“Lemme guess: you’ve got it in your head that I need protecting, so you’re gonna waltz on down to the bar, lure the bastard out and who fuckin’ gives a shit about your safety, ‘cause at least the fragile fuckin’ human is safe, right?” he ranted, fully aware that he was doing a piss-poor job at hiding how hurt and bitter he still was. 

Luckily, his partner didn’t comment on it; rather, Nines simply arched a brow and tilted his head. 

“Actually, I was going to ask if you felt comfortable with luring our suspect out. I admit, I am worried for your safety, but if you are careful then chances are, we could apprehend the killer without anything untoward occurring. I am loathed to admit it, but from what I can see, the human is always the first to be taken. So… it makes sense for you to ‘waltz on down to the bar, detective,” he said, not breaking eye contact with Gavin once. 

Narrowing his eyes, Gavin sniffed at roughly swiped at his scar. “I ain’t apologising,” he muttered, “but cool. Makes sense. I’ll fucking go.” He started towards the bathroom to get dressed, “I’ll turn the GPS on my phone so you can track that shit, just in case it goes south – we ain’t got any of those oximeters right now, so that’s gonna have to do.” 

“It would be incredibly inconvenient for things to ‘go south’, as it were, I do understand your logic,” Nines called out, a hint of exasperating threading through his words, “I should let you know that there is a 78% chance of you being drugged, so please be wary of what you order.” 

Gavin snorted as he quickly dressed himself. He yanked his pyjamas off and pulled his clean tee-shirt over his head. “What’s the odds on the case being closed tonight?” he called back, feeling the adrenaline slowly build and curl in his stomach. He thrived on being thrown into the thick of it, almost got high from the rush… and being used as bait for a killer? 

Best fucking high ever. 

“There is a 62% chance that we could potentially solve the case tonight – but there are too many variables and extenuating factors that I can’t control or conceive. I find it most displeasing,” Nines answered, his exasperating slowly melting into frustration, “I am putting my utmost trust into you and I do not wish for there to be a repeat of what happened with Marco.” 

Gavin rolled his eyes. 

“No provoking the suspect?” he asked rhetorically, his tone perfectly deadpan. 

“No provoking the suspect,” Nines confirmed, though he didn’t appear assured. 

The silence stretched between them – the tension in the atmosphere was thick and it was obvious to Gavin that they really needed to address the elephant in the room. The hurt still lingered in his mind and just remembering Nines’ words from the day before had him wanting to claw his skin off. Anxiety tasted sour on his tongue; Gavin rolled his shoulders back and sighed. 

“Listen, I—” 

“Detective, could we—” 

Gavin flushed and with a sharp clack, he snapped his mouth shut. Nines stared at him, lips pursed and LED flickering red – oh good, so he wasn’t the only fucker being affected by this shitty-ass situation. The android gazed at him steadily, before taking an awkward step forward; he reminded Gavin of his Uncle Ralph, back when he took Gavin on hunts with him. His uncle used to tread warily, body tight and steps soft, approaching his prey with an almost shy demeanour – Nines was acting the same way and something deep in Gavin rankled at the thought of being the android’s prey. 

He was no skittish deer, fuck that. 

“I would like—” 

“What the fuck—” 

Goddammit. 

Gavin bit off a curse and pinched the bridge of his nose as Nines froze in his tracks. The android’s LED froze too – the piercing red glow began to hurt Gavin’s eyes, so he tore his gaze away, focusing his attention on the awful patterned carpet beneath their feet. 

He felt, rather than heard, Nines approach him once more, his steps cautious and slow. 

“Detective,” the android murmured carefully, but Gavin refused to look up. Without warning, Nines gently cupped his face, momentarily freezing when the detective flinched from the touch; upon not receiving any disgruntlement from his partner, Nines softly forced Gavin to face him, his LED glowing gold.  

Gavin stared up into the android’s icy eyes and felt unsettled – his skin crawled and the same desire to claw it all off came rushing back to him. Swallowing roughly, he reached up to knock Nines’ hand away, only to freeze when the android caught his wrist. 

“What?” he asked hoarsely, proving just how exhausted this entire situation was making him feel. 

Nines’ lips twitched downwards, the android’s thumb slowly stroking over Gavin’s stubbly jawline. 

“After we have closed this case, I would like to speak with you,” the android said deliberately, “I do not believe our partnership can carry on unless we confront the issue that has developed between us. I do not wish to lose what we have, so please consider my request.” 

Gavin felt hot under Nines’ grip, his skin prickling as he slowly digested Nines’ offer.  

Wrinkling his nose, he nodded shortly and tore himself away from Nines’ hand. 

“I’ll consider it,” he said, a touch snarky as he eyed his partner, “but only if we get to talk about whatever the fuck is going on with your goddamn coding too.” 

Nines’ LED glimmered red, before it quickly eased down to a soft blue. 

“Very well,” he acquiesced, inclining his head towards Gavin. 

Gavin felt immeasurably satisfied, but only for a moment. Sniffing, he swiped at his scar and stepped away from Nines, feeling far too on edge to be so close to his partner right now. The android stared at him, lost and almost confused – if they had the time, Gavin would’ve demanded that they hash shit out right there and then. 

But some fucker was murdering innocent people – they could close the case within hours and Gavin wasn’t giving that chance up. 

Solving this case would look stellar on his record – when he went for his sergeant exam, he hoped it would be enough to balance out the racist shit in his history too. 

Well, maybe not enough… but it would be a start. 

Glancing up at Nines, Gavin sighed heavily and took another step back. 

“Right, cool. So, I’m gonna go get that drink,” he said, grabbing his jacket without looking back at Nines, “if I’m not back in three hours, come hunt me down.” 

“Detective,” Nines called after him, “please be careful.” 

Gavin didn’t bother sticking around to hear the rest, he closed the door behind him and made a start towards the elevator – he had a job to do and he didn’t need his attention being diverted towards pretty boy androids who were drowning in their own denial. He had felt so much lighter after hearing Nines offer to talk about their issues, but he inwardly knew that the fucker would still deny any sign of deviancy. He arrived at the elevator and pressed the call-button, making himself a promise to confront Nines about his bullshit one last time – if he failed again, then he was definitely giving up trying to force deviancy on his partner. 

The elevator arrived and Gavin sloped in, his mood plummeting as he faced the prospect of a lonely-ass life with no hot androids featuring in his future. 

Well.  

At least he had his cats.  

THE CAPTAIN’S PARLOUR 
11.41AM 

Gavin flagged down the bartender for another drink.  

The bartender was a Korean man with a pinched smile and dark bags under his eyes. He appeared human, though Gavin had been wrong before. He watched him work, mildly amused because fuck, he could relate; this week had been shitty, and it was pretty satisfying to see that he wasn’t the only sad bastard suffering. He watched as the guy took down a whiskey from the top shelf and set it down on the bar in front of him. 

“Same again?” the bartender asked. 

“Stick with what you know, right?” Gavin replied, picking up his glass and waving it deliberately. 

The bartender arched a brow and shrugged. “Little early for a whiskey?” he asked, taking Gavin’s glass from him regardless. 

“Never too early for a drink,” he retorted, licking his lips as the amber liquid sloshed in front of him. 

The bartender, Charlie, according to his nametag, tilted his head. “In my experience,” he began, “those who drink in my bar before noon tend to have a problem that they want to get off their chest.” 

Gavin watched him warily. “I ain’t got an issue,” he scoffed, “unless you refuse to give me my whiskey – then we might have an issue.” 

Charlie nodded knowingly. “Message received, loud and clear,” he stated, handing over a small glass of whiskey with a single rock of ice. Gavin took the glass and eyed the ice as it slowly bobbed – he couldn’t help but think about that one brain teaser that Chris had sent him, about two girls drinking water with ice. Only one had ended up dying because she drank too slow and the ice had melted, releasing a poison which killed her.  

Gavin always wondered if you could freeze a poison – he supposed he would find out tonight. 

He downed his drink, shuddering at the sharp burn and the smooth finish. Chris would probably kill him for drinking on the job… would probably find some way to ground him, with how serious he took his Work Dad duties at times. 

“So, how’s your stay been so far?” Charlie asked lightly, holding the whiskey bottle and shaking it at Gavin invitingly.  

Gavin considered it, a slow smile growing on his lips. The whiskey was good, honeyed with a kick, and it was all going on Fowler’s card, so fuck it. He held up his glass and tilted towards the bartender, eyeing him carefully as he filled it up. 

“Well, yesterday I got wasted before noon, my partner ended up having an emotional breakdown, we’re probably gonna break up when we leave and now I’m drinking my feelings instead of expressing them, ‘cause humans suck,” Gavin said, knocking back his drink, “I should’ve fucking stayed with my cats.” 

Charlie blinked and instantly capped the bottle of whiskey. 

Gavin blinked and narrowed his eyes, realising that he had said way too much to this complete stranger – fuck. He’s only ever been this honest to Tina and she never really needed the whiskey to get him to spill his guts. 

“You drug me?” he asked brazenly, his cold grey eyes flashing at the bartender. 

Charlie blinked again and choked out a laugh. “Seriously?” he asked, both brows arched high, “you think I’d risk my job by drugging the clientele? Do you know how hard it is to get a bartending job in Detroit? In this economy?” 

Gavin tilted his glass towards himself and considered it with a sharp sniff. 

“You sound pretty defensive there buddy,” he remarked, lazily dragging his gaze up to the bartender. In his line of work, people who get that heated over an accusation tend to be one of two things: innocent people who are hounded with the same question, over and over again, or… guilty people who think they can act. 

When they clearly fucking can’t. 

“I’m not defensive,” Charlie replied, placing the whiskey back on the shelf, “I just don’t like having my integrity questioned.” 

Gavin leaned further across the bar, propping his chin up with one hand, using the other to toy with the rim of his glass. 

“Bartenders come with integrity nowadays?” he asked mockingly, raising an indolent brow.  

Charlie muttered something dark under his breath as he placed his hands on his hips and faced the arrogant detective. Gavin sat up and held up his hands – it wouldn’t do to provoke a potential murderer this soon. At this rate, he’d definitely get shot and then all their progress would go to waste. 

“Listen, I just pour the drinks,” Charlie sighed, turning away to tidy up the shelves behind the bar. 

Gavin eyed him distrustfully and pushed the glass away. Okay, so there was a high goddamn chance he had just been drugged, which means the murderer is definitely in the immediate vicinity and he was never gonna live this shit down. God, he can already hear the guilt-trips and the threats to wrap him in bubble-wrap and urgh, he’d probably be lucky to get just one month of desk-duty. 

“I’m being a dickhead,” Gavin conceded, “but you can’t blame me – shit’s fucking weird around here, and with the recent string of murders, you gotta ask why this place ain’t been shut down.” 

Charlie paused as he tucked a bottle of brandy behind several glass tumblers. 

“The boss is very persuasive,” he said, “a few of us kicked up a fuss, but with money being tight the way it is nowadays, we’re realised that none of us could afford going without. Guess we figured the risk would be worth it if we had the extra security around.” 

Gavin snorted. “And where is this extra security?” he asked, “‘cause from what I’ve seen there’s sweet fuck all protecting the people staying here.” 

“You ask a lot of questions,” Charlie said mildly, his eyes shrewd and narrow. 

“Yo, I’m just tryna protect my boyfriend,” Gavin remarked with an easy shrug. He wrinkled his nose as he rolled his shoulders back – his muscles felt a lot heavier and he highly doubted that the feeling was down to mere exhaustion. “We booked this shit months ago – couldn’t afford to cancel when the murders went public, so we thought ‘fuck it, they must’ve amped up the security’. Now I’m thinkin’ we made a big fuckin’ mistake, ‘cause you clearly fuckin’ haven’t.” 

“Yeah, we couldn’t afford physical bodies, but extra cameras are just dime a dozen,” Charlie explained, seemingly oblivious to Gavin’s discomfort, “half of them don’t even work.” He whispered the last part like a secret, which rankled Gavin something fierce. 

“Fuck, that makes no goddamn sense,” he muttered lowly. 

Charlie eyed him, a strange glint in his eye. 

“I doubt much will be making sense to you right now,” he murmured, and Gavin swayed on his seat as the words slowly sank in. His mind felt like treacle, his thoughts thick and cloudy as he tried to grasp onto them.  

“Whaargh?” he asked, unintelligible as he clutched at his temple – the searing pain flared behind his eyes. The drug in the whiskey acted fast; he’d have to get Nines to take a sample, because this shit felt fucking lethal.  

Charlie held up the glass, as if reading Gavin’s thoughts and tossed it lightly into the air. 

“And you thought he’d be too clever to drug,” he mused aloud, glancing past Gavin to smirk at something behind him. Gavin arched his head to peer behind his shoulder and felt his stomach drop out his ass. 

“Well,” the newcomer mused, “this is certainly a first – I never overestimate these assholes.” 

Charlie snickered softly. 

Gavin suddenly felt very trapped – he had clocked three CCTV cameras when he first entered the bar and he sincerely hoped that Nines was tapped into them. Give it one more hour and his personal Terminator will come storming the bar looking for him. 

He prayed that Nines would knock Charlie’s shitty smirk off his face – he’d have to beg Nines for the footage afterwards. 

Afterwards… after… shit, after whatever the fuck they have planned for him. 

God, he could hear Chris’ unimpressed noises from across the goddamn city. 

“Oh fuck,” Gavin huffed out, the reality of his situation sinking in as he swung his head wildly between the newcomer and Charlie – his vision blurred at the edges and he could feel his entire body grow heavy as it started shutting down. The bartender grinned once again and offered the detective a sheepish shrug. “You… fuckin’… pr’ck.” 

“I told you,” Charlie said airily, “I just pour the drinks.” 

Man, I am so fucking grounded, Gavin thought before he succumbed to the darkness. 

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
UNKNOWN TIME 

“Well shit. You fucking kidnapped me,” Gavin stated in a bored tone, subtly testing the zip-ties around his wrists. He was sat, bound to a wooden chair in what looked like an office – he rolled his eyes at how painfully cliché the situation was. God, it was going to be so embarrassing having to write about this in his report and it was probably wishful thinking to have Nines omit some of the finer details. 

Shit. 

“Astute observation, detective.” 

Gavin rolled his eyes – he had heard those words before, but oddly enough, Nines had a way of making them sound affectionate.  

Now, they just sounded like a rebuke. 

“So,” Gavin drawled, flexing his arms, “you figured out I was a cop, huh? Well shit, is there where you threaten me? Tell me how clever you are for tricking a detective? Maybe laugh like a fucking maniac before using me as target practice for those knives?” 

“Christ, Is this your first time? Because let me tell you, television lies, got it? It’s way different to reality – or at least, your reality.” 

Gavin arched a brow and inwardly smirked. Asshole was easy to distract and manipulate; if Gavin kept him talking then he’d have more time to wriggle out of his bindings and Nines would also have more time to track him down. He cursed himself as he realised that his phone was in his jacket and his jacket… had been left at the bar. So, Nines couldn’t rely on tracking him via GPS, but he could interrogate the fuck outta Charlie… could probably find the kidnapping on the CCTV footage if the bartender hadn’t fucked with it first. Regardless, Gavin was confident in the fact that no matter what the details, Nines would be able to track him down. 

He was also pretty sure that no matter what had happened between them, Nines would want to find him alive and would most likely do whatever he could to ensure Gavin’s survival. 

So. 

Time to buy his partner some time. 

“Astute observation, asshole,” Gavin mocked, biting back a wince when his elbows began to protest at the awkward angle they were stuck in, “so, what is my reality? You gonna shank me now, or what?” 

A low chuckle, before Harrison turned around and eyed the detective with an almost bored look. He was dressed for work, in his smart waistcoat and tie, but he had a pair of latex gloves on and a raincoat draped over an arm. He was stood next to a table with an array of knives spread across it – he picked one up and flicked it around his fingers. Gavin watched him warily and cursed lowly as sweat broke out across his body. 

God, Nines better be tapping into his Terminator bullshit, ‘cause Gavin sure as shit wasn’t dying today. 

“Just sayin’,” Gavin continued, his skin prickling with fear, “I’d be pretty pissed if I died tonight – I ain’t seen the ending of The Real House Androids of LA, I need to know who André picks for the Garden Gala.”  

Harrison shook his head and stared, expressionless, at Gavin. 

“Nope,” he said, holding up a knife and eyeing the gleam on the blade with admiration, “Can’t kill you. I need your partner first – I have a system, see?” 

Gavin snorted and shook his head. 

“Man, you are so fucked,” Gavin snickered, wrenching his wrists against the zip-ties, gritting his teeth when the plastic dug painfully into his skin, “I mean, Charlie’s probably already had his shit wrecked, ‘cause Nines? That fucker’s like the goddamn Terminator and trust me, Sarah Connor? You ain’t.” 

“Yeah, well. We’ll see,” Harrison mused, twirling the knife around his fingers as he approached the detective, “no one’s perfect – tin cans like him especially so. See, all I need is one little scream from you and his systems will easily come crashing down. It’s pretty amazing how an android can fall apart from seeing their someone they ‘love’ get hurt – it’s like they can’t cope with seeing pain they can’t fix. Deviancy’s a goddamn blessing and a curse, lemme tell you. ‘Cause now? Now, those fuckers are fragile to mental duress. Watching them break is… well, it’s something, you’ll see.” He then considered Gavin with a small smile. “Then again, maybe not.” 

“You’re fucking weird and this definitely has something to do with your android ex realising that she can do much better, but go off, I guess?” Gavin commented, twisting his wrists and inwardly cursing at the lack of give, “also, Nines ain’t deviant, so you’re doubly fucked.” 

He decided to keep quiet about the true nature of their relationship for now – seemed wise to not throw all his cards onto the table. 

Harrison arched a brow. “Are you always this fucking mouthy? I mean, you aren’t exactly in any kind of position to be taunting me—” 

“—I’m always in the right position for taunting dickheads, dickhead—" 

“— but… your android hasn’t experienced deviancy yet?” he mused, testing the blade of his knife with his thumb, “well shit, this should be fun then; I haven’t had much fun since I started this damn job. Damn, I wonder if the stress of killing you will trigger him into deviancy – or maybe, if he’s still wired to obey, I could get him to kill you for me.” 

Gavin blanched at the thought of Nines being forced to kill him; regardless of the situation, Gavin knew that the android would be deeply hurt by Harrison using him as some kinda murder puppet. Even if it didn’t lead to deviancy, Nines still wouldn’t be able to cope with his actions – he had been built for delivering justice and doing what was right… murdering his partner could lead to irreparable consequences to his mind. 

If he didn’t end up destroying himself, Gavin was pretty confident that Tina would do the job for him. 

Fuck – Gavin did not need that kind of drama in his life, or afterlife for that matter. 

“You’re kind of a prick, y’know?” he sighed, biting back a snarl of pain when he felt the warmth rush of blood slowly trickle down his wrists.  

Harrison hummed and regarded Gavin blankly. 

“Sticks and stones,” he sings deadpan, slowly making his way towards the bound detective, “you know, I hope your android doesn’t take too long – I’m kinda looking forward to taking a detective apart.” 

There was a beat of silence as they both stared each other down. Gavin knew he had to keep the man going, keep him distracted somehow; they were quickly running out of time and he still had nothing on the man – no motive, no link between him and Charlie, no information on the how or the why… it would be incredibly unsatisfying to die without truly understanding why he was being murdered. 

Or how the asshole sussed out that he was undercover, Christ. 

The silence stretched as Gavin wracked his brain, until it was broken by three firm knocks on the door. Harrison froze like a deer, staring at the door with pale eyes – Gavin’s heart beat fiercely in his chest and he felt himself swoon in his chair. Harrison mechanically turned to face the detective, his eyes calculating and thoughtful – Gavin bared his teeth and laughed lowly, his grey eyes flashing like a dare. 

“Remember what I said about you being fucked?” he asked silkily, his heart racing wildly when Harrison’s expression screwed up into a filthy glare, “better get some lube, bitch.”