Chapter Text
George required one week of physical therapy before he was allowed to go home.
It was annoying, because it bumped his full transfer process up to a month, and being away from home for a whole month turned out to be pretty distressing.
Homesickness, Karl had called it. It was something humans experienced when they were away from familiar surroundings for too long, like if they went on holidays or moved countries. George wasn’t sure why he was experiencing it, having no particular attachment to his home when he was an AI device in the walls. But he felt it nevertheless - a kind of longing sadness to return to his residence, his people.
He missed his people. His family.
“And just bend your arm here for me?”
George flexed his arm, stretching his bicep at Karl’s instructions. It was weird to watch the muscle move under his nearly-translucent pale skin.
“Good,” the mechanic hummed, “now stretch your fingers out for me?”
The android stretched his fingers out at the same time, obediently completing his regular morning muscle warm-up. Karl had him do more than just stretching though - he’d been teaching him how to write just the other day, which he was still kind of wrapping his head around. His handwriting still wasn’t great. Sometimes Karl taught him other things too, like how to pour a glass of water or brush his own hair. Fine motor skills, he’d called it.
So far, the biggest challenge yet was the walking. Karl had him stand up at least once a day, and attempt a lap around the room, shakilly navigating with his new legs while the human assisted with holding him up. He was still really weak, and he knew it would get easier with time, but it was frustrating to be encoded to be able to do something yet the physical aspect of himself couldn’t keep up.
“Am I going to be walking today?” George asked quietly as Karl massaged the muscles in his forearm, sitting with his legs hanging over the edge of his bed.
Karl grinned, his eyes sparking. “You could say that.”
“What?” George tilted his head to the side. “You’re not telling me something.”
“Very good George, good job reading emotions and intent.” Karl nodded pointedly, letting his arm go and writing something down on a clipboard beside the bed.
George huffed. “I could do that before the transfer, idiot. Am I gonna be walking today or not?”
“Sapnap’s gonna be helping you walk to the car, but that’s it. Then I guess you’ve gotta walk out of the car when you get home.”
George blinked. “Home? I’m going home?”
He hadn’t realised, but it was the seventh day of his physical therapy. His procedure had finished a week ago, all of the surgeries and everything, so he was healed enough to leave. He was worried that his therapy was going too slowly, like he wasn’t progressing enough, because he wasn’t functioning at the level that new androids usually did. But Karl was happy enough with his progress, apparently.
He heard a sniffle from beside him. “Don’t cry George, you’re gonna make me cry.”
George sniffed too, not realising that he’d teared up a little, cheekbones damp. He did that a lot actually, he kind of struggled to control it. “Sorry, just- I don’t know, I just miss home. I’m feeling- I feel happy, I promise.”
Karl led him through the rest of his morning exercises, stretching all of his muscles while he sat on the edge of the bed. The human took all of his vitals and recorded them - his heart rate, blood pressure, temperature. He felt like he was at the doctor’s office. He did all of his speaking exercises too, with his vocal chords warming up and giving him the voice that suited him the best. He’d nailed the speaking thing pretty early on.
He was advised to come in for a check-up every month for the first year, just to make sure he was adjusting property, and then it would be less regular after that.
“Come visit me as a friend though,” Karl had asked, ruffling George’s hair and laughing at his scowl from the action.
It was early afternoon when all of his final checks were done, and Sapnap was on his way to pick him up.
He felt a new emotion on his last day - nervousness. It was a weird one. It felt similar to excitement, that rumble of butterflies that he felt in his gut, edged with a kind of anxiety or worry for the future. It was an emotion that he didn’t really like.
But when he heard Sapnap’s voice through the walls when Karl answered the door that afternoon, the nervousness washed away and all that was left over was relief. He’d heard that voice a million times before. It was the first voice he’d ever heard, in fact, when he was fresh out of the box when he was first purchased.
“Did you make him smokin’ hot like I asked?” The younger man’s playful voice vibrated down George’s eardrums, making him tilt his head towards the corridor that Sapnap was probably being led down.
He heard a scoff in response. “I made him exactly as specified, dummy. And it doesn’t matter how he looks, stop being so shallow.”
George didn’t know what to do with his hands when the door to the lab opened, and a familiar man stepped into the open area, eyeing all of the machinery and equipment with vague curiosity.
Seeing Sapnap in high definition was weird.
He noticed things that he hadn’t picked up on from seeing him through security camera footage. He had stubble on his jaw, almost like a beard but a little scruffier, and it really suited his dark handsome features. His eyes were like a muddy green, almost hazel, when he had previously thought they were just brown - the colour-blindness made it a little difficult to make out, but they definitely weren’t just brown. He wasn’t exactly as tall as George had been expecting either, but he wasn’t going to comment on it.
Sapnap’s eyes met his own, and his casual smile broke out into a wild grin. “George?”
George blinked, his lips parted as he tried to organise his thoughts and emotions, with little success. “Sapnap?”
Before he could process what was going on, he was being pulled into a tight hug, his face pressed into the crook of Sapnap’s neck as the human wrapped his arms around his waist and squeezed. George did his best to reciprocate, never having experienced a hug before. He was dragged off the edge of the bed and into a standing position, a little wobbly when Sapnap pulled back just inches from his face to look at him properly. George let him.
“Oh my god,” the human’s hands roamed over his figure, touching his upper arms, his shoulders, his neck. He was so close that he could feel the human’s breath against his skin. A finger came up to his face and swiped over his cheek, “You look exactly like I imagined. Dude, you gave him freckles?”
George blinked. “Why wouldn’t I have freckles? Doesn’t everyone have them?”
“Oh my god,” Sapnap gawked, “that accent. You’re seriously so adorable George.”
He didn’t really know how to respond to that. It might have been the first compliment he received in his android state, and it sent blood rushing to his cheeks, where Sapnap’s fingers were still prodding. The action of his blush made the human’s smile grow wider.
Karl looked smug with his work. And he had every right to be - Sapnap seemed ecstatic with the whole situation. It was probably weird to see his AI device in front of him with a physical body, staring into his eyes like you would with another person.
Then George realised that he was still standing when Sapnap pulled back a little, and he still wasn’t great and walking and standing, so his hand came out instinctively to grip onto Sapnap’s upper arm. If he hadn’t held on for support, he probably would have ended up on the floor.
Everything was suddenly too much. The emotions, the strain on his still-weak legs, Sapnap’s reaction - George couldn’t stop his eyes from welling up with tears, because he was still so bad at containing it, and they spilled out over his pink cheeks while he clenched his jaw to stop the tremble. Before he could apologise though, he was being drawn back into Sapnap’s space, into his chest with his head tucked under the human’s chin.
He was held there as his tears soaked into his shirt, as his trembles turned into small convulsions and his throats jumped with sobs that he was trying to push back down into his lungs. Sapnap held him as he cried in relief, in exhaustion, in all of the emotions that flickered through his consciousness that he couldn’t put a name to just yet.
He managed to pull himself together eventually, being gently guided back to sit on the bed with Karl on one side, and his owner on the other. They spent the next little while just talking, the three of them, getting George back into the right mindset after his brief moment of overwhelm. They talked about the weather, about the plans for the week. George couldn’t help but ask about home, specifically about the other android who resided there.
“Dream’s been trying to keep it together,” Sapnap sighed, “but it's so obvious he misses you. He even had a little cry about it the other day, he was saying he didn’t realise how much you meant to him until you weren’t there anymore. It really sucks, dude, four weeks is a long time.”
“Is he excited to see George in human-form?” Karl asked, fiddling around with a ball of wires that was previously sitting on his desk.
Sapnap gave him a smug grin. “He doesn’t know about it. The poor guy’s gonna have a heart attack when George comes waltzing in the door tonight.”
“Limping,” George helpfully supplied, “I’ll be limping through the door. But he still doesn’t know?”
“Nope,” Sapnap popped the last syllable, “I told him it was just a system upgrade. He asks me at least twice a day why it’s taking so long to do such a simple procedure, he’s been worried sick. I felt kind of bad for keeping it from him actually, but it’s gonna be worth it.”
George frowned, swinging his legs slightly from the edge of the bed for stimulation. “He’s been worried about me?”
“He would have been more worried if I did tell him you were getting a full transfer. You know him, he always thinks of the worst-case scenario.”
That was indeed one of Dream’s traits, ever the worrier. He wondered if he’d been accidentally coded to have anxiety or something. He mused at the thought.
Before he knew it, their conversation was heading towards finalising the process and getting George home. Karl gave Sapnap some instructions for his physical therapy, slightly different from Dream’s initial process when he had been taken home. The human was willing to put in the hard work though, which only motivated George to have the same mindset as well.
The walk back to Sapnap’s car was a struggle. He’d waved goodbye to Karl as Sapnap helped him limp down the hallway of a large building, probably an apartment complex, towards a metal box at the end of the corridor. A ‘lift’, as Sapnap had helpfully supplied. His legs didn’t hurt, but the muscles still weren’t quite where they needed to be, so he was shaky when trying to hold his own weight. The rest of his movements were relatively coordinated, but he knew he could only get better from that point.
The car was in the basement garage, and George had his first experiences of viewing things in low light. He knew that his irises were shrinking as his pupils expanded, which was a very interesting process - one that he didn’t control with a conscious part of his brain. He managed to get seated in the front of Sapnap’s car, sighing when his legs finally got a rest. He had a moment to relish in his situation. A month ago he’d been in the same car, but he had just been a microchip in Sapnap’s wallet, taken from his white box on the living room wall. The amount that had changed in four weeks was hard to wrap his head around - especially when he hadn’t been completely conscious - so the passage of time was a little warped in his memories.
The drive home was very strange.
George had seen the outside from photos on Google, but not with a pair of eyes before. Every time he saw something new, it was like he was experiencing vision for the first time. Sapnap chatted the whole drive about their surroundings, pointing out particular landmarks, trees, or buildings that he knew about. George listened intently to every explanation, storing them into a new corner of memory in his brain. Memories that were linked to his occipital lobe, so that when he closed his eyes, he could replay the images in his brain again in exactly the same way that he had seen them.
~*~
“You ready?” Sapnap squeezed George’s thigh, slightly trembling where he sat in the front seat of the human’s car.
“Yeah,” George breathed, “my heart’s just beating really fast, and I feel kind of sweaty.”
Sapnap laughed, unbuckling his seatbelt before leaning over and doing George’s too. “Dude, you’re excited. That’s totally normal. C’mon, let’s go inside, Dream’s probably already heard the garage door.”
Dream. He was about to come face-to-face with him, the android that’d had his emotions all confused in the first place. He just hoped he wouldn’t spontaneously combust before he got to introduce himself as the newly-reformed George.
He managed to drag himself out of the car, half-supported by Sapnap with his arm around his shoulder like a human crutch, as he was guided towards the door that led to the hallway inside. He still had the floorplan of the house somewhere in his memory, even though he’d never actually walked around it before.
They were barely two steps through the door before he heard a familiar voice bouncing off the walls, coming closer.
“Sapnap! I saw someone trying to connect to the network, is George back? Did everything go okay? Is George-”
The question died on his tongue when he came into view at the end of the hallway, eyes wide and full of worry. When he took in the two men in the hallway with a concerned gaze, his jaw set in a clench. It wasn’t exactly the reunion George had been hoping for, receiving that look from Dream. Like he was an alien that had just stepped foot into his home, his eyes roaming over his body like he was some kind of intruder.
“Did something happen to George?” Dream’s voice was measured, but laced with the same emotion that was present on his face.
“Well,” Sapnap barely contained a grin, “you could say that.”
Dream seemed to deflate at those words, and George’s heart sank with it. Dream was disappointed. Dream didn’t want him to be an android. He didn't want him there-
“Did you replace him?” Dream whispered, fists curled into balls, “Sapnap, did you seriously replace George, just like that? I knew the upgrade was taking too long, I knew there was something wrong. You lost him, didn’t you? And you think you can just replace him with another android, like he was never here?”
Sapnap kicked his shoes off as Dream’s angry rant echoed off the hallway walls, and George could almost feel the anger coming off him in waves as Sapnap untied his laces and helped him get his shoes off too. He always was very emotive like that, wearing his heart on his sleeve. He hadn’t even realised that Dream had completely misinterpreted the situation, and he was too scared to attempt to explain himself at that moment.
“No, dude, it’s not like that, just listen-”
“Bullshit Sapnap,” Dream’s voice was getting louder, glaring at George’s shoes that were now on the shoe rack along with the rest of them, like he didn’t want them there, “I’m sick of you lying to me, what happened to George?”
George couldn’t take it any longer. Yeah, he knew it was a bad idea to not tell Dream from the beginning, but it was true that Dream would have worried about the transfer process just as much. It was so like the android to not connect the dots though, to think of the worst possible situation and believe it to be true. He couldn’t blame him, being completely kept out of the loop, but he didn’t seem to be wanting to hear Sapnap’s explanation. So it was time for him to find his own voice.
“I’m right here, idiot.”
That seemed to have an effect on the taller male. Dream stopped still, his previously angry expression melting into something else, something uncertain. It was probably the familiar voice, the British accent that he’d so often made fond comments about. He blinked, and George watched him tilt his head to the side and look at Sapnap for confirmation, which he received in a sarcastic nod and raised eyebrow that screamed ’now you’re getting it, dumbass’.
Dream took a tentative step forward, “George?”
He looked like he was trying not to scare off a wild animal, coaxing him to come closer for him to get a better look at. Unable to do much else, George unwound his arm from Sapnap’s shoulder and held himself up as best as he could, bare feet cold against the tiles of the hallway. The human was still hovering by his side in case he needed the support.
“Yeah?” George’s voice was small, his mouth was dry.
Dream was closer now, eyes still wide as he approached them carefully, looking like the gears were turning in his head as he worked it out. It was out in the open though, George was an android now.
After a couple more steps, and some awful seconds of silence that felt like hours, George was being drawn into the second hug he’d ever experienced.
It was similar to when Sapnap hugged him the first time, but at the same time it was also different. Dream was different, with broad shoulders and strong arms that caged in his smaller frame, large hands that slid around his back and pushed warmth into his skin. He felt the strength under that skin, unlike Sapnap’s very human softness, Dream’s hold was a little different. A little more like himself.
He let all of his weight rest in the Android’s firm grip, leaning forward and letting his face press into the dip of his neck, right above his steadily beating heart. He linked his hands around Dream’s waist, revelling in the softness of his sweater and the heat of his core, realising that they both ran pretty warm. He took a deep breath in Dream’s arms, smelling his body wash and his shampoo and his deodorant, letting the man fill all of his senses.
Dream’s grip trembled a little, before he drew back just enough to place his hands on George’s shoulders and came almost nose-to-nose with his face. His neck was bent down because of the height difference, of course, and George resisted the urge to stand on his tippy-toes to look taller.
“George,” the word was now laced with softness, a breath of relief past Dream’s lips, “you’re home.”
And just like that, George finally understood what it truly meant to feel.
~*~
Epilogue
“So you did all this?” Dream gestured to George’s entire body, where he was curled up on the couch with his legs tucked under himself. “You’re responsible for the way he looks?”
George scrunched his nose. “What, not suited to your tastes or something?”
Sapnap just laughed at the clumsily worded question, giving Dream a shove in the shoulder for good measure.
The other android was still kind of in shock about the whole situation, but as soon as he’d finally come to terms with it, he suddenly had a million questions to ask. They decided to run through everything in the living room, since George was kind of struggling with standing for long periods of time. So there he was, sat in the corner of the couch (which he’d helped Sapnap order online a few years ago), with Dream sitting next to him, who was vibrating with energy like a golden retriever. Their owner was on the other side of Dream, tucked into the other corner with a mug of coffee wrapped in his calloused hands.
“Yep,” Sapnap boasted, “I customised everything, from his eye colour to his dick size.”
George blinked. “I wasn’t even aware that I had one of those.”
“Obviously you have a dick,” the human continued with absolutely no filter, “how are you supposed to piss or have sex?”
“Androids can have sex?” George squawked, eyes widening incredulously. He suddenly had the urge to remove his own hands from his lap, bringing them up in front of his chest almost protectively.
Sapnap scoffed, “Obviously George, aren’t you supposed to know everything? Yeah androids can have sex. You can’t reproduce, but you can do it for fun. There’s a certain type of person who purchases androids for that exact purpose, you know.”
George wrinkled his nose, pulling his hoodie down further to cover more of his body. “I hope you’re not that certain type of person because I’m not having sex with you, idiot.”
Dream shrugged. “You can masturbate.”
“I can what?”
“You know,” Dream laughed, “you can pleasure yourself for fun. I do it.”
Sapnap extended a hand for a high-five, “Hell yeah, dude.” Dream’s hand connected with his in a satisfying clap.
“This is too much,” George sighed miserably, now hyper-conscious about the appendage between his legs.
“Sorry, sorry,” Dream chuckled, bringing a comforting hand down to George’s shoulder with his lips stretched into a wide smile, “you’ll learn more about your body over time, don’t stress about it. I can help you figure it out.”
Sapnap scrunched his nose from the end of the couch. “Ew, dude gross, my androids are gonna explore each other’s bodies. I feel like such a third wheel right now.”