Work Text:
The Detroit Police Department was quiet. Detective Gavin Reed was sitting at his desk, typing the last details about an update on a case he was working on. He was highly aware of the presence of the RK900 that was casually looking around the empty room, probably scanning whatever he found on Gavin's colleague's desks.
The man stopped typing and threw his arms behind his back, stretching on his chair. His legs hurt from staying sitting for so long and his head was already home, probably staring at the TV as his mind wandered elsewhere — it returned back to the police station, it returned back to the RK900.
“Are you done, detective?” The android asked, walking to Gavin's desk with measured and even steps. Not too fast, not too casual. Mechanical, calculated.
Gavin's jaw clenched and he tilted his head down, then raised his dark green eyes to the android — the corners of his mouth tugging upwards in a smile that didn't fit his face.
“Yeah, I'm done” he said as he slowly stood up, his blood finally flowing back to the tip of his numb feet again. But before he grabbed his jacket and car keys something made him stop on his tracks.
A thought, or maybe just the ghost of it. Like a string pulling at the base of his stomach, pinning him on the spot. His head turned to the android and once again, Gavin was struck by the machine’s features.
His perfect bright light blue eyes seemed to shine even in the half lit room — only a few neon lights were still on above their heads — and his expression was so neutral Gavin wondered for a moment if the android was thinking about anything at all.
Gavin scoffed, shaking his head. The android's handsomeness was almost a mockery of the human being itself, for his jaw was just the perfect angle, his eyes just the perfect shape framed by dark eyebrows that showed no expression at all.
His LED was a light blue that in the dim light shone on half of his face highlighting its symmetry and appearing almost like a halo around the right side of his head.
“What is it?” The android asked, and Gavin realised to his uneasiness that he had been thinking for too long — observing for too long.
“It’s nothing. I was literally wondering how can you…” Gavin swallowed on a dry mouth.
“Be so perfect?”
“How can you live like this, with nothing more than a job” the detective spat out the first words that came to his mind, shaking his head once more as he tried to dismiss the android.
“That's not true” the android replied, calmly as if his accusation didn't hold any weight.
It did for Gavin who retreated his hand from the back of his chair where his jacket was hung and looked the android in the eyes instead.
“What the hell do you mean?” Gavin already knew the answer. He was perfectly aware of the capacity of the RK900’s lie detection program. A quiver in his voice, a too shallow breath in between his words. Something had given him off.
“You were thinking about something else” the android tilted his head slightly “Something related to the case?”
Gavin tried to keep his expression as steady as he could. For a moment he wished he was a statue as his heart started pounding in his throat. The android would notice, he realised as a wave of horror washed over him.
“It's about me” it was a statement, not a question, not a guess. The android's eyes widened just a fraction — his face displaying nothing more than a slightly satisfied hint at the fact that he had hit the mark. He could see it in the way Gavin's Adam's apple was slowly shifting as he swallowed. He could detect it in the man's body temperature, heart rate, eye movement.
Gavin couldn't deny it. For how much he wished he could shrug it off and push the android and his assumptions aside, he cared too much to let it go.
Slowly he nodded once, pursing his lips as he narrowed his brows. The android's expression remained neutral and that bothered Gavin even more. He had no regard for Gavin's thoughts and that made the man want to turn around and throw his chair on the other side of the room.
“Yea maybe it was about you” Gavin said through gritted teeth “About how you seem not to care about anything but your damn assignments” he didn't even know why he was giving voice to the thoughts that had been plaguing him for weeks. Since he realised he was attracted by that machine that showed no sign of humanity besides bearing the features of a man.
And Gavin hated himself for it. For how much he tried to convince himself it wasn't true, when he was alone under the cold water of his shower he would clench his teeth so hard he thought they might shatter as a single thing ran through his mind over and over — a plaguing sentence he wished he could eradicate from his consciousness.
“I fell in love with a machine”
And every time he returned to the DPD and saw the RK900 stationary, staring blankly in front of him and waiting for Gavin to arrive to start working on their assignments, his heart felt like it was being stabbed.
“What else should I care about, detective?” The android asked as his head tilted back to normal. Everything about the android made Gavin think he would never get it, even if he would tell him how he felt, what he wished — the android just couldn't understand it.
With a sigh Gavin took a step forward, needing to walk past the RK900 without knowing exactly where. Just somewhere he could breathe without the feeling of a boulder on his chest.
A hand snatched his bicep. Gavin froze on the spot. His blood started flowing so loud in his ears it deafened everything else. The android's grip was solid, steel around his flesh and Gavin shivered. The machine's hand wasn't hard. It wasn't painful. It was almost soft.
For how many times Gavin had wished to feel the texture of the android's synthetic skin, he never did before — and this moment felt like the worst one to linger on it.
“You wish I was different” the android's voice reached Gavin's ears and forced itself down his throat. He swallowed it and felt the words land heavy in his stomach.
“You wish I was like you” the android continued and Gavin flinched. He tried to snatch his arm away, finally shaking himself off the daze he had been trapped into, but he didn't manage.
He yanked his arm once more, this time turning his head towards the android with a furious expression that hid what he really felt inside — the android was making fun of him, toying with his obvious feelings just because he could scan him, make a file out of him, strip him into a line of code.
“Fuck off—” Gavin's lips moved faster than his mind did.
“I already am” the android cut him off, looking at Gavin, really looking. Not scanning, not assessing. His face was the same, his expression assertive and calm, but his right eye flinched just slightly when his LED turned orange.
Gavin felt his mouth full of sand. He couldn’t speak, he couldn't think.
Deviant.
That was the only word that filled his head to the point it started to hurt at the temples. He couldn't be a deviant. They still were getting destroyed. They couldn't take him away. Gavin would've accepted a life with him as a simple machine if it meant having him around.
Gavin's lips parted, heat crept up from the collar of his shirt to his cheeks as he tried to hide the mixture of panic and something too close to excitement that was stirring inside him.
“Don't say bullshit. You don't even understand what it means—”
“To be in love?” The android slowly released Gavin's bicep, but the man didn't move. He was sure the expression on his face made him look dumb, flabbergasted, but he didn't want to take his eyes off the android. His gaze flicked in between his light blue eyes and his pink perfect lips.
Gavin realised he had forgotten to breathe when his lungs started hurting and a heavy sigh flowed out of his chest.
“Why are you telling me this?” He asked in a voice he didn't recognise as his own. Broken, almost scared to know the answer. Too many possibilities crossed his thoughts and he realised he wasn't ready for any of them.
Suddenly he wanted to run. Where, he didn't know. Just as far as possible from the android's eyes looking at him as if he was seeing him. Not studying, not calculating. This terrified the man more than a gun to his forehead would've.
“Because I'm the same”
No. Gavin thought. He was hearing it wrong. He had fallen asleep on his desk and he was inside the most vivid dream he ever had. It couldn't be happening, but the slight pain of his own fingernails digging into his palms was too real for a dream. The air that seemed to have become solid in between them felt unbreathable for a long moment.
The detective was sure his face was telling all he was trying to keep inside and realising he couldn't stop it broke him even more. The look in the android's eyes was alive. It was the same it had always been — piercing, firm like an anchor on the bottom of the ocean, but Gavin saw something flicker in it. Recognition. Something that maybe had always been there and that he didn't see before.
The man didn't understand how it happened, for how long he had been staring like he had just been slapped on the face, but the weight of the android's lips on his own was sudden, real, almost violent. His own lips parted slightly, his head tilted to accommodate the kiss. A short huff from his nose followed when all his resolve shattered and both his hands firmly cupped the android's jaw.
Open your eyes. Open your fucking eyes. Gavin couldn't believe what was happening. He had to see it even if all he felt with his remaining senses was real, was solid. He was kissing him. He was pulling him closer and he was feeling the android's hands on his side, slowly travelling to his back.
Gavin's eyelids opened only a fraction and the unmistakable proof of it was displayed on the android's long black lashes closed, brushing his perfectly smooth cheeks as their noses bumped against each other. Gavin let out a broken sound, a cry that rose from his throat and resonated in his skull and felt the android's grip tighten on his shirt.
The man broke the kiss to breathe. He needed more oxygen to his brain that was becoming too hazy. He exhaled once and forgot how to breathe in again, his lungs refusing to cooperate. Where Nines' hands pressed on his shirt his skin was burning underneath and he still needed to lean into them.
“Nines, this… we can't” his voice was a ghost on the android's lips, so close Gavin could still feel the sting they left on him like if the kiss had been charged with electricity.
“Nines?” The android asked without releasing his grip on Gavin. The corner of his lip tugged upwards and Gavin felt suddenly too exposed, as if he had been caught doing something wrong.
“That's just… how I call you… in my head” he almost stuttered as he blinked too fast, his head spinning too violently for him to form a better answer.
“Nines…” the android tasted the name on his tongue, repeating it barely above a whisper as his nose touched Gavin's once again. The man tilted his head up to the taller machine and closed his eyes as if he could switch off the light and get rid of the slight embarrassment that twisted his guts.
“Nines” the android repeated, not slower, but so faintly Gavin thought he had imagined it. The man's jaw clenched like he was being shot on his chest every time he heard the name he had secretly given to the android coming straight out of his lips. It didn't feel like an accusation, it wasn't mocking. It almost seemed the android was deciding if he liked it or not.
“Nines” this time Gavin said it. He said it against the android's lips while he refused to open his eyes again, terrified this could all disappear if he did.
He closed the imperceptible gap in between them once again, this time he was guiding Nines’ lips, leading the dance of a kiss that was deeper, hungrier. It wasn't uncharted territory anymore. That line had been crossed and Gavin wanted to feel it through. His brows furrowed as he felt Nines’ tongue pressing on his lips — his own parting to accept it, his tongue clashing against his as a suffocated groan escaped his throat.
Gavin's hand went to cup the back of Nines' head while he tugged at the short black hair at the base of his neck. Every time they moved and detached just to press their lips together again as if they had been starving for one another, Gavin felt the knot his chest loosen, his whole body relaxing to the point his knees trembled.
He suddenly didn't recognise himself. He was making out in his job place with a machine. The machine he was in love with. It was so surreal he couldn't even fully grasp the concept of it, and he realised he didn't care. It felt right, it felt like a perfect mechanism clicking in place.
Gavin bit Nines' lower lip, softly pulling it before releasing it and backing off just enough to stare at the android one last time. One last time before it would all settle in his soul and nothing would be the same ever again.
“Since when?” Gavin asked in a low raspy voice, looking at Nines in the eyes.
Since when are you a deviant? Since when are you in love? He was sure the two things happened at the same time. He didn't know better.
“I was a deviant before I got here” Nines murmured and his mouth moved so close to Gavin's, but no air came out of his lips “I've been in love since the day I met you”.