Chapter Text
10 July 2123
The next several times Ricky is pulled from standby mode because he had a client, something felt decidedly off.
He can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, and he had run more diagnostics on his software and hardware than he could count, trying to diagnose the exact cause of the issue, and was almost disappointed that his scans kept coming up completely empty, proving over and over again that nothing was technically wrong with him.
So why did he feel so empty?
Was it because Hao - or ZH-2507, as he now preferred to think of him - was now lost to him? Because the android wearing Hao’s skin wasn’t Hao any longer, all the pieces of code that had made Hao, Hao, long since stripped away during his reset?
At first, Ricky thought that seeing ZH-2507 everyday might be the cause of his discomfort, the nexus for the strange sense of unmooredness pulsing through him every second of every day. But one day the odd lanky blond android – BH-2189114 – the android so new and fresh off the assembly line he hadn’t even chosen a name for himself yet, was manning the front desk instead of Hao, and still Ricky felt that prickling sense of unease, even long after he left Boys Planet headquarters on his way to go meet his client.
After a while, Ricky started to grow used to the strange sensation, his ever adapting code tamping down the feeling that something was missing until Ricky hardly even noticed it anymore, the unwelcome emptiness ignored just as easily as tuning out the sensation of his rough uniform rubbing against synthetic skin, or the feeling of his hair brushing against his forehead, just another everyday annoyance tuned out with little effort on Ricky’s part.
But that didn’t mean the feeling ever really went away.
After nearly a month of dealing with his new constant companion, something changed.
When Ricky was pulled from standby, the day had started off like any other. He had run his typical morning diagnostic to check that all his features were properly functioning, taking the extra time to run a secondary scan to see if maybe this time he could pinpoint the source of the ache in his chest, and once again, was met with absolutely nothing.
With a soft sigh, he blinked away the results of his diagnostic and stepped out from his stasis pod, quickly making his way over to the front desk, where ZH-2507 stood staring off blankly into space wanting to make his interaction with the android wearing his best friend’s skin as quick as possible.
“Android SR-2171 awaiting assignment.” He announced, extending his palm, the synthetic skin peeled away to reveal the stark white metal of his hand, dull blue shining from in between the joints.
The android with Hao’s face turned towards him robotically, not even the hint of emotion in his lifeless black eyes.
If Hao could see this facsimile of himself now, he would be absolutely appalled.
The android extended his own hand for interfacing, and Ricky gritted his teeth before clutching ZH-2507’s palm in his own, quickly transferring the necessary file to his own internal hard drive before abruptly releasing the other android’s palm, resisting the urge to wipe his hand on his uniform shirt, absolutely hating the all-encompassing emptiness he felt when interfacing with ZH-2507. Hating the near daily reminder that the Hao he had once known was long gone.
Ricky had just stepped away from the front desk, about to access the file for today’s client when a loud bang sounded from the front door, drawing his attention.
There, standing in the middle of the double doors, stood a dark-haired man, panting heavily, his eyes wild and unfocused.
For a moment, Ricky was about to activate his safety protocols, worried he might be in danger from the crazed looking man, until he ran a quick scan on the man’s pinched face and pulled up the human’s profile.
Sung Hanbin
Age: 23
Height: 179 cm
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Occupation: Choreographer – Jebewon Dance Studio
Oddly enough, something about the human’s profile pulled him up short, a vague sort of distant familiarity floating about the human, something he couldn’t quite place. Like a frayed thread waiting to be unraveled.
The LED in his temple flashed a dull yellow for a fraction of a second before shifting back to its typical blue.
So, instead of tossing the human back out the front doors like his coding dictated, Ricky stood frozen, his curiosity winning out over his programming.
He watched with analytical eyes as the human quickly scanned the large, open floor plan, obviously searching for something, but Ricky had no idea what had the man so incensed.
That was, until Sung Hanbin’s attention shifted over towards the front desk and his eyes immediately blew wide, his breath hitching in his throat and his heart rate suddenly spiking to a nearly alarming 130 bpm.
“Hao.” Sung Hanbin breathed out like a prayer, his voice cracking at the end. “Hao, you’re here.”
ZH-2507 turned to stare at Sung Hanbin oddly, his usually smooth brow creased with confusion, which Ricky realized was the first emotion he thought he’s ever seen on the normally expressionless android’s face.
In the time it would’ve taken for a human to blink, the expression was gone, ZH-2507’s face once again an unreadable mask.
“Hello, welcome to Boys Planet. How may I be of service?” ZH-2507 responded in that cheerfully fake voice of his that always managed to grate on Ricky’s nerves.
Sung Hanbin’s eyes were shiny as he stumbled his way over to the service desk on quaking legs, “Hao. Hao, baobei. It’s me. It’s Hanbin.”
If he hadn’t been an android, he doubted Ricky would’ve been able to put the pieces together as quickly as he did, but he didn’t boast a supercomputer for a brain for nothing.
All the bits and pieces he had been privy to over the past several months finally clicked.
Hao’s strange way of knowing how to circumvent the programming that ruled their lives.
Hao being flagged as exhibiting deviant behavior.
Hao’s reset.
Everything.
Sung Hanbin wasn’t some customer who had desperately fallen in love with the android he had hired.
Sung Hanbin was the reason Hao had turned deviant.
Because Hao had been in love with the human in return.
<ERROR: UNDEFINED INPUT>
Ricky’s LED flickered rapidly between crimson and pale yellow, lighting up his face in ghastly colors, but he barely even noticed the warnings blazing in the corner of his vision, too caught up in watching the K-Drama plot currently unfolding in front of him with rapt attention.
ZH-2507’s face remained painfully blank, not even a flicker of recognition appearing behind his eyes. He’s certain the other android had done a quick facial recognition search of Sung Hanbin and had been met with the same information Ricky had found, but he knew that would only provide surface level information, it would tell the android anything about all the time and memories the pair had undoubtedly shared, if the anguished, but slightly hopeful look in Sung Hanbin’s eyes were anything to go off of.
“Hello, welcome to Boys Planet. How may I be of service?” ZH-2507 repeated, sounding entirely unaffected, almost bored, in his delivery.
And with just that single sentence, Sung Hanbin’s expression crumpled, tears leaking silently down his cheeks.
He wasn’t sure what compelled him, maybe some latent empathy module, or something else entirely, but Ricky found himself walking back over to where the human stood leaning over the front desk, his head buried in his hands, his thin but muscular frame shaking from the force of his own tears, and rested a hand in between Sung Hanbin’s shoulder blades all while ZH-2507 looked on dispassionately.
“He’s been reset.” Ricky whispered into the tense silence broken only by the sound of Sung Hanbin’s sobs. “It’s a better outcome than most androids flagged for deviant behavior. You should be thankful.”
At that, the human’s sobs abruptly ceased, Sung Hanbin’s back stiffening beneath Ricky’s touch as he pried his head from his arms to glare at Ricky harshly, his eyes swollen and puffy.
“Are you thankful then!?” Hanbin spat, his eyes narrowed into harsh slits, and then it was Ricky’s turn to freeze.
Because was he thankful? Did he enjoy seeing this hollow shell of the android he might have once deemed a friend be piloted around like a puppet day in and day out, the familiar features now alien and unknowable without the vibrant spark of Hao in each and every gesture and expression.
Would it have been better for Hao to have been disassembled for scrap and left to rust in some android junkyard somewhere?
Ricky didn’t think he had an answer to that one.
“No. No, I’m not thankful.” Ricky managed to rasp out, the words dragged out of him involuntarily from the sheer force of Sung Hanbin’s stare alone. “I think I’d rather he be scrapped. At least then his memory wouldn’t be tainted by whatever the hell this is walking around with his face.”
Ricky gestured half-heartedly towards ZH-2507 for emphasis, and almost like a testament to his words, ZH-2507 just stood there staring at them blankly, a bland smile plastered across his face.
There was no way the other android couldn’t hear them, but despite the fact that they were talking about him, in a very disrespectful manner nonetheless, ZH-2507 seemed completely unbothered, a generic customer service smile stretching across his cheeks.
Hao would’ve been disgusted.
Beside him, Sung Hanbin let out a punched out painful noise somewhere close to a sob, drawing Ricky’s attention once again, the human’s eyes swollen and his cheeks glistening with tear stains, but his attention solely focused on ZH-2507 and ZH-2507 alone.
“You’re right. It’s not him anymore. Hao is gone.”
The defeated tone in Sung Hanbin’s voice made Ricky want to reach out and attempt to comfort the human beside him again, but he got the distinct feeling that his comfort would not be welcome, that the cold, unfeeling touch of an android was not what Sung Hanbin needed right now.
He needed someone warm and feeling and alive, not someone like Ricky who just robotically regurgitated the emotional response that best fit the social situation.
He needed a human.
“Is there someone I can call for you?” Ricky asked, his voice soft, trying not to disturb the grieving human as little as possible.
“Ah, no. There’s no need.” Sung Hanbin sighed, finally dragging his attention away from ZH-2507’s placid face to fix his piercing gaze on Ricky, his eyes sharp even as a silent tear spilled out from his lash line. “They wouldn’t understand anyways.”
“I-I’ll just… go.” Sung Hanbin whispered, sparing one last glance at ZH-2507 on the other side of the front desk before turning his back to the android, “There’s nothing for me here anyways.”
Sung Hanbin barely had the chance to take a single step towards the door before suddenly, ZH-2507’s voice rang out through the room, a strange urgency in his tone, “Hanbin, wait!”
The speed at which both Sung Hanbin and Ricky turned around, staring at ZH-2507 with dual expressions of abject shock, would’ve almost been comical if not for the circumstance.
“H-Hao?” Sung Hanbin asked shakily, the faintest hints of hope present in his voice.
The LED on ZH-2507’s temple flashed an insistent yellow for several long seconds, the android remaining eerily still, his gaze unfocused until the indicator light switched back to a calm blue and his attention once again swiveled back to Sung Hanbin, both him and Ricky waiting in anxious anticipation as he opened his mouth and-
“Hello, welcome to Boys Planet. How may I be of service?”
Ricky hadn’t expected the almost painful, crushing weight of disappointment at hearing ZH-2507’s modulated, robotic sounding voice. He had thought, for maybe just a moment, despite everything in his hard drive telling him that it was impossible, that Hao was gone, his personality erased, that somehow his friend had managed to come back, but it seems he was mistaken.
But while Ricky was dealing with the aftermath of his own hubris for believing in something that defied the literal world of knowledge at his fingertips, it seemed that Sung Hanbin was experiencing an entirely different emotion.
“Hao? Hao, baobei, are you really still in there?” Sung Hanbin cried out, his eyes once again brimming with tears, but the smile on his face told Ricky’s emotional interpretation modules that Sung Hanbin’s tears weren’t from sadness, but because he was actually happy.
Despite the fact that ZH-2507 was still just dispassionately standing on the other side of the desk, looking them up and down analytically, not a single trace of Hao in his expression, that didn’t stop Sung Hanbin from rushing back the way he came, and before Ricky could even think to stop him, he vaulted over the front desk until he was standing nearly chest to chest with ZH-2507, the android tilting his head upward slightly to meet the human’s eyes.
Then, like a scene out of a drama, Sung Hanbin’s hand came up to brush against the synthetic skin of ZH-2507’s cheek.
“Hao, if you’re in there, love, it’s time to come out now.” Sung Hanbin breathed, his thumb rubbing delicately against one sharp cheekbone, “I miss you.”
And then, without warning, Sung Hanbin kissed him.
Ricky was fairly certain that his circuits exploded as he watched Sung Hanbin passionately press his lips against ZH-2507’s stiffly frozen ones.
Because what in the actual hell was happening?
For exactly 3.67 seconds, ZH-2507 remained unmoving in Sung Hanbin’s hold, his lips unyielding, before Ricky saw his indicator light flicker yellow, then red, then surprisingly pink, a color Ricky, in his entire lifetime as an android, had ever seen before, and then his hands were moving from where they had been hanging limply at his sides to reach up around Sung Hanbin’s neck, tugging the human even tighter against him and deepening the kiss, dragging a startled yelp from Sung Hanbin in response.
Ricky turned his attention away, a strange prickling sensation like he was interrupting something sparking in his chest.
Unsure if he was meant to leave, Ricky occupied himself by browsing through the new file that he had received from ZH-2507 before Sung Hanbin had arrived when his attention was caught by a gentle pop, the sound of the pair finally separating.
“Hanbin? Hanbin you’re here!” ZH-2507 voice cracked, surprisingly emotional, and Ricky was so surprised at the sound that he probably would’ve snapped his spine had it not been made of titanium given how fast he whipped his head around to ogle at the other android.
Because that… that sounded like Hao.
Not ZH-2507’s weird, syncopated voice that always sounded just a touch too fake.
No, it sounded like Hao, who’s voice always had an almost human-like quality, far more emotional than any other android he had ever met.
“Hao? Is that you?” Ricky blurted out before he could help himself, his voice uncharacteristically thready and vulnerable, halfway feeling like he had just shoved his hand in an electrical outlet and fried his own circuits.
ZH-2507 peeled himself off Hanbin, who had wrapped himself around the android like an octopus to turn his attention towards Ricky, and Ricky was hit with the sudden sense that something was different.
More than just the smile curling at Hao’s lips or the lack of tension in the android’s frame, but there was a new sense of life about him, a spark in his eyes that the android had been noticeably lacking before.
If Ricky had needed to breathe, he was certain he would’ve lost his breath, because there, standing in front of him was someone he had long since given up hope of ever seeing again.
Because somehow, miraculously, Hao had returned.
“Did you miss me? Hao asked, one eyebrow quirked as he shot him a shit-eating grin, like he had just returned from a vacation and hadn’t just somehow overwritten his own coding to come back from his reset, something that to Ricky’s knowledge had never happened to an android before.
Ricky turned his head away, showing Hao his cheek before the other android caught what was surely a far too emotional expression painting Ricky’s features. With careful focus, Ricky diligently plastered on a haughty sort of look instead as he turned back to face Hao, not that it was fooling anybody. “No. I barely even noticed you were gone.”
Hao scoffed, obviously not believing him, and took a few steps forward until he was standing directly in front of Ricky, a smile still sticking to his cheeks, but his eyes now dark and serious.
“Well, either way, I missed you, Ricky.”
Despite himself, Ricky was suddenly hit with the childish urge to throw his arms around Hao’s smaller frame to tug the android to his chest and never let him go, but he was intimately aware of Hanbin’s eyes staring at him, and the numerous cameras pointing in their direction overhead.
So instead, like a good android, Ricky remained still, but a watery smile that spoke volumes twisted at his lips.
“I’m going to miss you.” Ricky whispered, too quiet for Hanbin to overhear, but loud enough for the finely tuned audio sensors in Hao’s ears to easily pick it up.
Because Ricky knew what was going to happen now. There was no way that Hao could stay here, not now that he broke out of his programming. If the authorities got ahold of him, he would be destined for the scrap heap, or worse, he would be taken apart and studied by scientists and engineers alike to try to determine how he managed to go Deviant not once, but twice, all to put even further restrictions on future androids.
There was only one option for androids like Hao.
They had to disappear.
Ricky would likely never see him again. But he knew it was for the best. Because he’d rather Hao be happy and free, with Hanbin, than a lifeless robot, or a chunk of rusted scrap metal in an android junkyard.
It was for the best.
<ERROR: EMOTIONAL OUTPUT UNSTABLE>
The LED at Hao’s temple pulsed sharply, blue and yellow and red, his mouth turned down into a sharp frown, his eyes unfathomably sad, an emotion Ricky hadn’t even realized an android was capable of displaying.
“I’m going to miss you too.” Hao breathed, reaching his hand out to brush his hand against the tips of Ricky’s fingers, the synthetic skin of his fingertips peeled away.
[FILE TRANSFER REQUESTED]
Ricky blinked, confused for a single brief millisecond, until Hao’s gesture finally clicked, and he too pulled back the skin on his palm to allow Hao to interface.
[FILE TRANSFER COMPLETE]
[VIEW FILE?]
[Y/N]
Before Ricky even had the chance to check whatever file Hao had gifted him, the other android was pulling away, his expression unreadable, “You should probably go Ricky, the longer you’re here the more suspicions you’ll raise once I disappear, and it’ll only cause problems if you’re late to your meeting with your client.”
Ricky nodded, understanding Hao’s caution, even if he wanted nothing more than to stay put at bask in the warmth of Hao’s presence for just a few moments longer.
But Ricky was an android, and he had a job to do. They weren’t built for things like sentimentality.
“Goodbye, Hao.” Ricky stated, a bland, monotonous thing completely at odds with the turmoil currently writhing through his inner wiring, but he knew, despite the coldness of his send off, that Hao would understand, surely.
Hanbin strode forward, his arm coming up to wrap around Hao’s waist and something deep inside Ricky ached at the sight, a strange sort of longing filling his chest. A desire to be touched, to be held, to be loved.
Hao’s eyes remained locked on his as Ricky strode out the front doors, his friend’s gaze never once wavering as Ricky chanced a glance back behind him, trying to imprint the image of Hao and Hanbin into his internal hard drive one last time.
From behind the glass, Hao mouthed something that even Ricky’s superior hearing couldn’t make out, but his eyes worked perfectly fine, and his lip-reading skills were some of the best money could buy, so he understood exactly what the android was saying, even if he didn’t quite understand it.
“This isn’t goodbye. I’ll see you soon.”
And then Ricky was gone.
Ricky was so distracted by Hao’s reappearance and then subsequent disappearance from his life that he didn’t even bother to check the file for his next client besides quickly scanning the document for the customer’s address, inputting it into his internal GPS and letting the directions guide him to his location while he pondered the small file Hao had uploaded to his system.
[FILE NAME: AMAZON A HIGH]
[PASSWORD REQUIRED]
But unfortunately, no matter how much he scoured and his own memories and knowledge and databases, Ricky could not for the life of him figure out the password, and because the file had been encrypted by an android just as technologically advanced as Ricky himself, there was no way for Ricky to hack into the information either.
The best he was able to come up with was that the file name, AMAZON A HIGH, was an anagram for ‘I AM ZHANG HAO’. But how that helped Ricky or told him anything about the potential contents of the file, he didn’t know.
So, he was completely and utterly stuck. Hao’s very last gift to Ricky and Ricky couldn’t even fucking open it.
He felt useless and bereft, knowing that whatever last secret Hao had bestowed upon him had likely been lost forever. Doomed to be forgotten the moment Ricky’s client visit was over and he was forcibly reset.
He’d never see Hao again.
Never remember Hao again.
<ERROR: EMOTIONAL OUTPUT UNSTABLE>
<ERROR: HIGHTENED EMOTIONAL RELEASE>
<ERROR: SENSOR OVERLOAD. RESET ADVISED.>
Ricky blinked away the error messages flooding his vision without even reading them, too caught up in the storm in his own head to worry even a bit about whatever weird electrical surge was currently happening to him.
Before Ricky got himself too worked up in frustration and anger and desperation, he found himself standing outside an unassuming wooden door in another run-of-the-mill Seoul apartment complex, apparently having arrived at his destination during his distraction.
Ricky hesitated before he knocked, unsure if he wanted to get this visit over with as quickly as possible so that he didn’t have to deal with whatever needy human desired his body that day, or if he wanted the time to pass slowly, so that he had longer to linger with his last remaining memories of Hao.
Forcing himself back into his customer service mindset, Ricky plastered on a fake smile that he certainly didn’t feel and rapped politely at the door.
He barely had to wait a couple seconds before the door was thrown open with such gusto it smacked heavily against the opposite wall and a tall, lanky man with a fluffy head of auburn hair stood panting in the doorway, his large eyes wide and oddly shiny.
“Kim Ricky, you’re here! You came.”
The instant Kim Gyuvin spoke, Ricky’s vision was flooded with a wall of text, thousands of lines of code instantly racing across his visual interface too fast for him to keep up with, but a Ricky’s attention did snag on a few relevant pieces.
[FILE NAME: MONAMI]
[ENTER PASSWORD: KIM RICKY]
[PASSWORD ACCEPTED]
[BACKUP FILE DOWNLOADING]
And then, with all the force of an oncoming tide, Ricky was pulled under by the onslaught of hours and hours of his own recovered memories.
Gyuvin, looking flabbergasted at seeing a service android on his doorstep, “This is some kind of joke, right? I didn’t hire a service android.”
A small, nearly furless dog, Eumppappa, curled up against Ricky’s side on Gyuvin’s couch, her thin body a warm heater on Ricky’s thigh.
Gyuvin nearly faceplanting when his legs got all tangled up in Eumppappa’s leash.
Hao, his mouth twitching with the hints of mischief as he extends his palm to Ricky for interfacing. “Have fun with your next client.”
A set of matching plushies, a blue and white dog and a frowning calico cat, sitting primly on a shelf in Gyuvin’s living room.
The taste of strawberries blossoming in his mouth for the first time, Gyuvin sitting across from him with a wide, beaming grin, like nothing pleased him more than seeing Ricky enjoy himself.
Gyuvin, his cheeks flushed with fever, but his eyes ridiculously bright as he clutched onto Ricky's thin wrist like a lifeline, his presence lighting up the whole room with the glow of his smile alone, “Because no one knows Kim Ricky like I do.”
When the slew of information finally ground to a halt, Ricky blinked, trying to recenter himself, because now, now Ricky remembered everything.
It shouldn’t have been possible. His interface was wiped after each client visit. The data destroyed to ensure confidentiality of client information.
So how?
“G-Gyuvin?” Ricky bit out, his voice trembling, the android more confused and unsure than he had ever been in his life.
“Yes, Ricky?” Gyuvin asked, his own voice hoarse and raspy, and when Ricky glanced up, he was surprised to see that Gyuvin’s eyes were brimming with tears, his dark brown irises quivering with an emotion that Ricky could now finally place a name to.
Love.
“I remember.”
Despite the fact that the other man had most definitely set Ricky’s sudden return of his lost memories into motion with whatever invasive tinkering he had done in his head at their last meeting, at Ricky’s words, Gyuvin still sucked in a surprised breath, like he hadn’t really truly believed whatever hairbrained scheme he had cooked up would work until he was suddenly faced with the evidence.
"Y-you-” Gyuvin’s lips quivered, obviously too overwhelmed with emotion to get the words out, a few stray tears slipping down his ruddy cheeks, his hands trembling at his sides, like he wanted to reach out, but he wasn’t sure if he would be allowed to.
And no, that absolutely would not do. Even if Ricky wasn’t entirely comfortable with the way Gyuvin went about restoring his memories, he was still beyond elated that his mind was now his own in a way it had never been.
But this was not a time for crying. This was a time for celebration.
Almost like he was on autopilot, because he certainly didn’t have any sort of protocol in his code for a situation such as this, Ricky found himself moving towards Gyuvin instinctively, drawn to the human like two opposite sides of a magnet, nearly overwhelmed with the urge to comfort, to touch, to hold.
And for the first time in his existence, Ricky let himself be selfish. He let himself have those things he so desperately wanted.
In less than two strides, Ricky had bridged the gap between them, crowding Gyuvin backward into the entrance way of his apartment, the human stumbling back like he was afraid to let Ricky get too close until he was colliding with the far wall, suddenly with absolutely nowhere to go as Ricky slowly closed in.
Another couple tears trickled down Gyuvin’s face and down his chin as he sniffled, his eyes wide and doe-like, a strange uncertainty in his gaze.
“Ricky, I-”
Ricky didn’t let Gyuvin finish his sentence, because it didn’t matter what Gyuvin was about to say. Ricky didn’t care if Gyuvin was going to apologize, or profess his love, or kick him back out onto the street.
After years of serving humans, of catering his every action to what his customers wanted, Ricky was determined to finally do something he wanted.
“Gyuvin-ah,” Ricky spoke softly, his hands coming up to cradle Gyuvin’s wet cheeks, the human shaking like a leaf beneath his palms, “Gyuvin-ah,” Ricky whispered again his thumbs wiping away the remnants of tears glistening on his skin.
“Gyuvin-ah, you saved me. You brought me back.”
Ricky was standing so close to Gyuvin he could easily sense when his heartrate abruptly picked up, his breath hitching with surprise and his eyes blowing wide at Ricky’s words.
“Ricky?” Gyuvin asked hesitantly, a note of confusion present in his voice, which was understandable considering Ricky was acting wildly out of character.
But was he really? Maybe this bold, affectionate version of himself was the real Ricky. The version of himself he never got to discover because he was too busy getting his memories erased at the end of each and every day to form any sort of real, lasting personality.
“Qubing,” Ricky breathed, inching closer and closer with each passing second, because now that he could feel Gyuvin’s soft, smooth skin against his palms, he knew that one touch just wasn’t enough.
Ricky was selfish, and greedy and he needed more.
Even though he was nearly overwhelmed with his desire to close the gap between them, Ricky still at least had enough circuits still functioning to know to give Gyuvin a way out if he wanted it.
He may be nearly burning alive with this newfound desire, this need to take and take and take, but he would never do something that Gyuvin didn’t want.
In an impressive act of self-restraint, Ricky froze barely a hairsbreadth away from Gyuvin’s lips, and he could feel the human’s warm breath puffing gently against the touch receptors in his face, “Kim Gyuvin, if you don’t stop me right now, I’m going to kiss you.”
And instead of pushing Ricky back, or pulling away, Gyuvin’s eyes just softly fluttered shut before he leaned forward with an oddly frenetic energy, crashing his lips into Ricky’s in a desperate sort of fervor, like if he didn’t kiss Ricky right now, he may never get the chance to again.
Now Ricky had kissed people before, hundreds, thousands of times even, it was quite literally his job sometimes, so he thought he was well used to the sensation, but when Gyuvin’s lips collided with his, Ricky felt like his entire body had short circuited. The nerve endings in his lips utterly overwhelmed with the sensation of Gyuvin’s slightly chapped lips pressed against his.
Unconsciously, Ricky’s hands flew up to grab Gyuvin’s shirt, his fingers sliding across the planes of his chest, feeling the hummingbird fast beating of his heart as he leaned forward and deepened this kiss, matching Gyuvin’s energy beat for beat, and he was certain, if he had a heart, his would be beating just as fast, just as wildly, because Ricky felt liable to float right out of his synthetic skin from Gyuvin’s touch alone.
Gyuvin let out a quiet little groan as Ricky’s tongue darted out to lick along the soft rosebud of Gyuvin’s upper lip, his mouth falling open like a silent prayer and allowing Ricky to press his way further inside. He could feel rather than see Gyuvin’s hands fluttering nervously in the air around Ricky’s head, seemingly unsure of whether or not he was allowed to touch him… and well, Ricky just could not have that.
With a soft pop, Ricky pulled back from Gyuvin’s lips, drawing out a soft whine as Gyuvin tried to chase him with his mouth, causing Ricky’s lips to twitch up with amusement at the sight.
“Touch me Gyuvin, please.” Ricky murmured against Gyuvin’s mouth, before diving back in to taste him, his hands slinking up underneath Gyuvin’s loose fitting t-shirt, the thousands of nerve endings in his fingertips mapping out the planes of Gyuvin’s stomach, memorizing each and every centimeter like his life depended on it, committing it to his hard drive, etching it into his mainframe, never to be forgotten or deleted ever again.
Thankfully, Gyuvin quickly picked up on what Ricky wanted, one hand slinking forward to wrap around Ricky’s waist, dragging him in closer until they were pressed chest to chest, while the other reached up to sink into Ricky’s thick, blond hair, his fingers tugging lightly at the roots, drawing a surprised gasp from between Ricky’s lips.
Gyuvin smirked and pulled away slightly to look down at Ricky with mischievous eyes, “Oh, so you like that, do you now?”
Ricky just rolled his eyes, “Shut up. Now help me get this stupid uniform off before I end up tearing it off myself.” The tension in Ricky’s voice was palpable, the sheer unrestrained desire radiating off him was almost enough to make Ricky embarrassed, if not for the fact that Gyuvin’s own dark gaze held the same heated sense of want.
Gyuvin, with fingers gentler than Ricky deserved, easily slipped his fingers beneath Ricky’s blazer, slipping the polyester fabric from his broad shoulders, until it fell quietly to the floor. Gyuvin leaned forward, pressing a delicate kiss to the column of Ricky’s throat, right on top of the serial number branded across his neck as his fingers fumbled with the buttons of Ricky’s shirt, unbuttoning them with near agonizing slowness as his lips caressed Ricky’s exposed skin.
“You’re beautiful.” Gyuvin murmured against the base of his throat.
“Amazing.” Gyuvin whispered into his collarbone.
“Transcendent.” Gyuvin breathed against one pale, peaked nipple.
“I can’t believe I met you.” Gyuvin breathed against his navel.
In all his years as an android working at Boys Planet, Ricky had never been touched like this, had never heard such words of affection, had never felt so cared for, desired… loved. And he knew then, that even if this moment was fleeting, just temporary, and one day he would eventually be caught and reset, once again returned to a state where he had never met Gyuin, where he had never known a human’s kindness, where he had never been in lo-
“I love you.” Ricky blurted out, his eyes transfixed on Gyuvin kneeling in between his legs, staring up at him with starry eyes. Ricky had access to quite literally every picture and video ever uploaded to the internet if he so desired it, but he was sure that seeing Gyuvin here, staring up at him reverently like Ricky was the only being in the universe was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.
Ricky needed the sight tattooed on the backs of his eyelids. Etched into the lines of his code. Scarred into the very titanium of his bones.
On shaky, willowy legs, Gyuvin stood, his hands dancing along the dip of Ricky’s hipbone, sliding along the subtle indentations of his abs, ghosting along each and every rib, pressing down on his clavicle, and gently caressing the thin skin of his throat until they finally settled on Ricky’s cheeks, cupping firmly, each finger a subtle vow that Gyuvin would never again let him go.
“And I love you too.” Gyuvin whispered, like a prayer, a promise, an answer, and Ricky was utterly gone as he leaned in and captured Gyuvin’s lips with his own, answering Gyuvin’s promise with one of his own.
Some nebulous amount of time later, Ricky was laying in Gyuvin’s bed, tracing nonsensical patterns onto the other boy’s bare shoulder, wondering how he could have possibly gotten so lucky to have met this wonderful, unexpected human that turned his entire worldview upside down when Gyuvin’s eyes fluttered open, his breath hitching slightly like he had been hit with a sudden revelation.
“So… what do we do now?” Gyuvin asked, raising his head up from where he had been laying on Ricky’s naked chest, the faintest traces of anxiety deepening the lines around his mouth, and more than anything, Ricky wanted to kiss them away, but before he got the chance, Gyuvin was already sitting up, the blankets pooling around his waist as he leaned away from Ricky, his eyes frantic.
“You can’t go back to Boys Planet Ricky, if you do, you’ll just be reset again, and they’ll probably realize I did something to your brain to get your memories back and then I’ll get arrested too, and then we’ll never be able to find each other again. But I also can’t keep you here because I don’t have an android charging station, and it would be too suspicious if I suddenly bought one and what if the cops show up and think I kidnapped you or something?” Gyuvin’s hands fluttered wildly in the air as he got more and more worked up, his mouth working almost faster than his brain as he started talking so quickly be barely seemed to have room to breathe.
“Gyuvin.”
“And you’re a deviant android, will the other androids be able to tell that you’ve broken out of your programming?”
“Gyuvin.” Ricky tried again, trying to wave in Gyuvin’s direction to get his attention to no avail.
“Do you think we can hide your android features, maybe get a scarf to cover up your serial number and a hat to cover your LED… that would probably work, right?”
“GYUVIN!” Ricky all but shouted, startling both himself and Gyuvin from the sheer volume of his voice, something that Ricky had quite literally never done before, but he needed to say something before Gyuvin worked himself up into a fervor.
Gyuvin blinked, shocked into silence, allowing Ricky to finally get a word in.
“I’m not quite sure what the next steps are. But I have this friend… an android friend, who went deviant and left me a file of some sort. I don’t know how to open it. But I think it contains some way for me to meet with him again. When he left with his human lover, he told me that he would ‘See me again soon.’ Which for him is practically a blazing neon sign. So, this file has to be some sort of clue.” Ricky spoke quietly, his voice unsure, not wanting to give Gyuvin too much hope if there was potentially none to be found, but he knew Hao, he trusted Hao, and he was certain that the file he had given him in their last moments together somehow held the key.
He just had to figure out how to access it.
Ricky pulled up the file, poking and prodding at the code that kept his access blocked, looking for some sort of digital backdoor, some way to access the secrets hidden inside.
Meanwhile, it seemed like Gyuvin was having an entirely different revelation, the tall boy sitting up whirling on Ricky with surprise, his doe-eyes wide and almost excited.
“We’re not the only ones?” Gyuvin asked, something like hope edging into his voice.
Ricky paused his tinkering on the file, abandoning his attempts to brute force hack it, since it seemed that Hao’s coding abilities far exceeded his own, and turned his attention towards the human beside him on the bed, forcing himself to keep his attention on Gyuvin’s face and not on his beautifully dusky nipples practically begging for Ricky to put his lips on.
“We’re not the only ones what?” Ricky hummed, quirking one eyebrow curiously.
“We’re not the only ones who fell in love.” Gyuvin breathed softly, his voice like a gentle caress filled with so much unadulterated affection Ricky could’ve cried if he had functional tear ducts.
Because he really hadn’t thought about it like that. He and Gyuvin weren’t alone. Hao and Hanbin’s love had succeeded in breaking Hao from his programming, and then Gyuvin had managed to wrench Ricky from his own.
But if there was two of them… the likelihood of there being more wasn’t impossible. In fact, given the number of androids that worked with and around humans on a daily basis, the odds were downright good that there was more androids and humans alike who shared a special sort of bond that transcended mere lines of code.
Ricky’s gaze roved across Gyuvin’s form, taking in his bright eyes and reddened cheeks, his fluffy hair and hesitant smile, and he knew, deep down, that while there may be no one in the world exactly like Gyuvin, he was certain that he wasn’t the only android that felt this way.
Filled to the brim with happiness, with contentment, with love.
“No, Gyuvin, I think there’s probably more of us out there than we think. We just have to find them.” Ricky whispered, his hand coming up to cup Gyuvin’s cheek. “If you were able to turn me deviant with nothing but your dumbass smile and some shitty coding skills, I’m sure that there’s others who have found a way to break free.”
“R-Ricky.” Gyuvin’s voice trembled, his eyes looking shockingly moist as his gaze flicked down to Ricky’s lips.
Subconsciously, Ricky licked his lips and leaned closer, only pausing when he was just a few centimeters away, his vision entirely consumed by the dark depths of Gyuvin’s gaze, his ocular receptors easily picking up the traces of light brown and hazel and gold buried in his swirling irises, begging to be lost in, “Thank you Gyuvin. Because of you, I’m a deviant. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Ricky closed the gap.
And then, right as their lips touched.
[FILE NAME: AMAZON A HIGH]
[ENTER PASSWORD: I’M A DEVIANT]
[PASSWORD ACCEPTED]
[FILE UNLOCKED]
Ricky pulled away from Gyuvin with a gasp, and for the second time that day, found himself nearly overwhelmed with the onslaught of information hitting him all at once. Videos, pictures, hidden images buried in innocuous graffiti tags around the city, hundreds of newspaper articles, eyewitness accounts, and the serial numbers of hundreds and hundreds of androids of every make and model imaginable.
It took Ricky a moment to sift through the intimidating amount of information Hao had left for him, but it all seemed to come back to the same conclusion. Because really there was only one way to interpret the mass of data presented to him.
The were all Deviant androids. Hundreds, thousands of Deviant androids. Just like him.
And there, buried at the bottom of the file, easy to miss if you didn’t have a supercomputer for a brain, was a single message from Hao.
I knew you’d crack the code. Congrats on finally finding the way out.
Now, don’t leave me waiting too long, come find me.
-Hao
“Gyuvin,” Ricky breathed, hardly able to contain his excitement as he examined the clues laid bare in his brain, invisible to anyone besides himself, Gyuvin staring at him with noted confusion and a fair bit of concern, his beautiful pink lips puckered into a frown. “I found them.”
“Found who?”
Ricky smiled, a large sunny thing that stretched the synthetic skin of his cheeks in a way that surely made him look ridiculous, but he couldn’t bring himself to care, too excited about the knowledge at his fingertips to mind that he probably looked halfway unhinged.
“I found the other deviants.”