Work Text:
The first time it happens is in late May, RK900 comes to work in his usual black turtleneck, but it’s not in the pristine state Gavin is used to seeing. Instead, there are white filaments covering it that look almost like cat hair. Gavin furrows his brows. Weird.
The android, however, seems not to be mindful about that, as he takes his usual place at the desk next to Gavin’s, starts his terminal and turns to Gavin in the meantime.
“Did we get a new case yet?” he asks and Gavin shakes his head.
“Nope, the perps seem to have taken a break.” They solved their last case 3 days ago and since then Fowler hasn’t called them in. This was seriously weird for Detroit, and Gavin starts to wonder just how bad the next case would be to ‘make up’ for this free time.
“I guess it’s a good thing that no one is getting hurt…” muses the android turning back to the screen that came to life. Gavin humms. The ‘or they just haven’t been discovered yet’ left unsaid between them. They both understood that.
Gavin shakes his head when a realisation hits him about how things have changed over the last half a year, just like he himself did. Back when the revolution started, he hated the androids. He didn’t even think about them as he didn’t even think about a possibility that they could be living beings. They were just overgrown toys, machines, objects. The waking moment for him, just as for many others he supposed, was seeing the peaceful march – the unarmed androids being shot at and killed. It reminded him of the riots from his youth, when kids were kept in cages, there were almost weekly shootings, military at the border was awaiting those seeking refuge. The history really liked to repeat itself.
Then, a couple of months after the revolution, Nines arrived at the station for the first time. Unlike Connor who had been immediately partnered with Hank back in the day (and became inseparable ever since), Nines was more of a free standing officer at first, offering help with cases to anyone who might have needed his aid. Gavin worked with him back then a couple of times and developed some kind of respect for the android who kept up with his jabs and was unafraid to talk back at him.
Then, back in February, he’s been assigned a pretty nasty case, so he swallowed his pride and asked RK900 for help. To everyone’s surprise, they managed to get a crack at it just after a few days and ended the case with arrests that broke up a human-trafficking ring. This case has seriously helped his career to get back on track for promotion and Fowler has been so pleased with their cooperation that he decided to make them a permanent team.
Gavin still can remember the smile that Nines sent his way that day when instead of throwing a tantrum like everyone expected, Gavin has just accepted the assignment with a nod. A smile that almost made him weak in his knees and made him develop a crush on the android.
Working together has not made things easier for him in that respect. The more he learned about his partner, the deeper his feelings got. But there were still things that Gavin didn’t know about the android that intrigued him, like what has Nines been doing with all his free time since he didn’t need to sleep or eat. And now, the cat hair. After looking at it, Gavin is positive it is cat hair. But where did it come from…
“Is something wrong, Detective?” the android suddenly asks, taking Gavin by surprise. He didn’t think that his staring was so obvious. He clears his throat.
“No. It’s just you have this white stuff all over your shirt. You’ll contaminate the crime scene if we get called to one,” Gavin responds, trying to sound as neutral as possible, and as always ending up being mean. Sometimes he hates himself for that.
Nines, however, must have gotten used to him snapping over the previous months as he doesn’t seem affected by it and just looks at his shirt.
“Must be the cat from this morning,” he says thoughtfully and tries to brush the hair off with his hand, to no avail. Gavin sighs. The androids were supposed to be perfect, but sometimes they’re just so helpless.
He reaches into one of his drawers and takes out a lint roller. He always keeps a spare one to use before he goes to any crime scene or the lab. Living with a cat means that he has cat hair on himself pretty often, so it’s the only way to ensure he won’t drop them at inappropriate places.
He reaches across the small space between his and Nine’s desk, handing the android the lint roller.
“Here, try this.”
RK900 blinks and hesitates, his led circling yellow as he assesses the item before he takes it from Gavin’s hand.
“Thank you, Detective,” he says with a small smile.
Gavin just grunts in response and turns away quickly to hide the small blush creeping up on his cheeks. He’s so fucking pathetic.
---
Over the next couple of weeks, Nines comes to work covered in cat hair increasingly more often, to the point where more people start to notice it. His arrival times also start to coincide with that of Gavin’s (seems like they are both workaholics, coming to the station as early as possible, but not too early to keep up the facade of having a healthy work-life balance), so Gavin supposes he shouldn’t be too surprised when rumors start to spread about them. He still is.
“So, you and robo boy?” Tina asks one day, approaching him in the break room.
“Me and Nines what?” he snaps.
“Well, you’re fucking now, right?”
Gavin sputters, spitting out coffee violently. Tina makes a disgusted face but still waits for him to answer.
“What the literal fuck, Chen? What gave you this insane idea?” he manages to say when he composes himself.
“Everyone’s talking about it. You were obviously into him and now you come to work together, he’s constantly covered in cat hair. People can add two and two together, Gavin.”
Gavin groans exasperated.
“No, we’re not fucking, ” he says lowering his voice, suddenly afraid that the android might overhear them. “Coming to work at the same time was purely coincidental and the cat hair is as much of a fucking mystery to me as it is to you.”
Chen shrugs.
“Ah, too bad. I was hoping for some juicy details,” she says turning away to exit the room.
“Chen, am I… really that obvious?” Gavin asks her just before she leaves, she turns her head to look at him with a smirk.
“Yup,” she says accentuating the last consonant and steps out into the bullpen.
Fuck. Fuck.
---
Gavin has about a dozen of theories about the origin of the cat hair on Nines’ clothing, ranging from adopting a cat to volunteering at a shelter to picking up cat grooming as a hobby, but he’s no closer to solving that riddle than he was the first day.
He has no way of musing on it any longer this morning though, because as soon as he steps into the precinct he’s called in by Fowler. He goes into the office and closes the door. Fowler looks up at him with suspicion.
“Where’s your partner?” he asks.
“No idea, I’m not his nanny,” Gavin shrugs. “I just came to work, didn’t have time to look for him yet.”
Fowler grimaces.
“Weird, I thought… anyway, you’ll have to fill him in then,” he says handing out a new case file to Gavin when suddenly the door opens and RK900 enters the room.
He looks perfectly unruffled, even though he was clearly in a hurry to get here.
“I apologize for being late, I lost track of time, Captain. What did I miss?” he says.
Fowler makes an incredulous face before he quickly composes himself and clears his throat.
“Nothing yet, I was just starting to explain the case to your partner,” he says and then goes into the details of their new assignment.
Gavin and Nines leave the office a couple of minutes later and Nines turns to immediately go into the garage to drive to the crime scene before Gavin stops him.
“Nu-uh, tin can. You’re not going anywhere when you look like that.”
RK900 blinks and looks down, a sudden realisation appearing on his face.
“Oh, thank you, detective. Can I borrow your lint roller again?”
Gavin sighs but mutters “sure” as they head to his desk. He seriously starts considering buying the android his own lint roller as a gift.
He watches as Nines methodically gets rid of the fur from his turtleneck.
“How did you get so furrified anyway?” Gavin asks suddenly, not bearing to stop his curiosity anymore. Nines chuckles before answering, the sound making Gavin’s stomach squeeze.
“I was in a cat cafe. That’s actually why I was late today.”
“A cat cafe.” Gavin repeats blankly.
Nines nods in answer, handing him the lint roller back.
“I can take you there next time I’ll be going, if you would want. You like cats, right?” Nines asks and Gavin swallows. He feels as if his brain has short-circuited.
“S… sure,” he manages.
“Great. It’s settled then.” Nines sends him another smile that makes Gavin instantly weak in the knees. “And I guess we should be going to that crime scene now before Captain Fowler yells at us for loitering”
---
It’s a week and a half later and Gavin’s in a car with Nines heading to a small cafe in downtown Detroit. They have finished their shift for the day and Nines asked him if he wanted to come with so Gavin said yes. Like he would ever say no to cats… or to Nines. Speaking of the android, Gavin is not sure what his footing here is. It kinda feels like a date but Gavin can’t be sure. Maybe for the android it’s just a simple friendly gesture. He doesn’t really have time to wonder on it much longer as the car pulls to a stop and they get off and head to the cafe.
“Oh! Hi, Richard!” One of the waitresses standing behind the counter waves at them as soon as they enter. She uses the name RK900 is going by, Gavin realises. He himself, like many of their colleagues at the precinct, usually goes for the nickname, but he was aware that the android has an actual name. He must have been coming here quite often for the staff to actually call him that.
The android is already coming up to the counter so Gavin follows him.
“Hi, Anne, Jessica,” Nines greets the girls who are smiling at him honestly, without the fake note you sometimes see in retail workers.
“You haven’t been here in a while,” the blonde one says in a mock-accusatory voice and Nines’ expression turns guilty. Gavin blinks, he’s never seen the android look like that (it’s much more a Connor thing).
“Sorry,” he says. “I’ve been busy at work lately. But I brought you a new customer today. This is Gavin,” he adds placing a hand on Gavin’s shoulder. The touch makes Gavin feel hot and he’s sure he’s starting to blush and now the girls are looking at him expectantly.
“Uh… hi…” he manages getting smiles in return.
“So what can we get for you?” the blonde asks at last.
“I’ll get the usual,” Nines responds right away before even Gavin has a chance to ask for a menu or something, “And for Det… Gavin it’ll be a large coffee with sugar and a little milk. Do you want anything to eat?” Nines asks turning to look at him. Gavin swallows.
“We have a great pecan pie,” the brunette chimes in helpfully.
“Yeah… I’ll take that,” he says.
“Awesome, will get your order soon. Take a seat in the meantime,” the blonde says, entering the order on a pad. Nines pays for it and then turns to lead Gavin to one of the tables.
The tables in the cafe are lower than usual, and instead of chairs there are poufs and floor pillows. They make it easier to interact with the cats who are milling around the cafe, Gavin supposes. Sure enough, a moment after they sit down, there’s a cat on his lap. It’s a pretty maine coon mix, and Gavin starts petting it instinctively.
“Hello, princess,” he says scratching under the chin and the cat purrs. He likes cats, a lot, so this is truly relaxing to him. He looks up to see Nines petting a cat on his lap mechanically and looking at Gavin with a peculiar expression. It’s a mix of amusement and something else… Fondness?
“What?” Gavin snaps, confused.
Nines just shakes his head and looks down with a small smile on his lips.
Gavin isn’t sure he wants to know what’s going on in that cybernetic head of his and before he even has a chance to ask, they’re interrupted by the brunette server who arrives with their order.
“Here you go,” she says as she places his coffee and pie in front of him and then whatever-the-hell the android ordered before Nines and leaves them.
Gavin eyes suspiciously the highlighter-blue concoction in a milkshake glass, he raises his eyebrows at Nines who seems to instantly read the question from his gaze,
“It’s a desert made of thirium, the blue blood,” he explains. “We can’t really enjoy human meals, but we can ingest thirium. Anne’s an android like me so when she started working here after the revolution, she decided to do something so that our kind can also enjoy themselves in establishments like this one. That’s why I like coming here. And there are also the cats. I know some people mistrust them but I find their presence very relaxing,” he adds.
“Yeah, I can understand that…” Gavin mutters and reaches for his coffee. He can’t help but notice how the frothed milk makes a perfect heart in the center of his cup.
They spend another hour and a half in the cafe, talking about everything and nothing. Gavin learns that Nines has started learning foreign languages ‘the human way’ and watching old movies to fill in his spare time. Eventually, however, they have to leave. Gavin’s cat, Kirk, needs feeding and he feels it’s better not to annoy him any more than necessary since he’ll already be bringing in the smell of other cats into the house. But before they leave, Gavin comes up to the counter.
“I saw that you give the cats you foster here for adoption, so I wanted to ask if I can get one,” he says.
“Of course. We’ll need to pre-clear you before we decide, though. We want to make sure that cats go to good homes,” the brunette, Anne as he learned, says with a smile. Gavin nods. That much was expected. “Which one are you interested in?”
“The maine coon mix. I believe the name on the tag was Einstein,” he says and feels Nines come up behind him to see what the delay was all about.
“Umm…” Anne hesitates. “I’m afraid we already have someone interested in her and in the process of pre-clearance.”
“Oh, really?” Gavin feels a little deflated. He really started to like this little minx, and had a feeling she’d get on with Kirk just fine. He notices, however, how Anne steals a glance at Nines. Oh. Well. That’s his fucking luck.
Nines blinks and looks at Anne and then at Gavin.
“We can co-parent her,” he says with a shrug and a smile that makes Gavin’s stomach do the backflip. He barely registers the girl’s excited exclamation.
---
Couple of weeks later Gavin opens his door to be greeted by the sight of Nines with a pet carrier.
“Sorry for the short notice,” the android says referring to the text he sent Gavin half an hour earlier, “but I just picked Einstein up and thought it’s a good idea for her and Kirk to get acquainted while we discuss how we’re going to go about this co-parenting her.”
Gavin takes a step back to let the android in and closes the door behind him while Nines sets the carrier on the floor and opens it to let Einstein out. She seems a bit unsure at first so Gavin decides that they should let her explore at her own pace and with a gesture shows Nines to follow him into the living room.
He sits down on the couch while Nines takes the armchair to his right. He’s a bit unsure of what to say, so he’s kind of glad that the android starts the conversation.
“I figured we should divide our time equally so I was thinking four days at my place, then three at yours, than three at mine and four at yours and so on,” he says and then adds. “I think we also should have the same set of rules so that she won’t get confused.” He looks so serious that Gavin can’t stop himself from laughing. The android looks at him dumbfounded. “What?” he asks.
Gavin shakes his head.
“Sorry, sorry,” he calms himself. “Honestly though, I didn’t think you’d really want to do it. The shared custody.”
“Why would I have said something that I didn’t mean?” The android looks even more confused now.
“I don’t know? To appease me?” Gavin suddenly feels very self-conscious. “I just figured you’d actually want her to yourself.”
“I’d never do something like this to you, Gavin.” Gavin still finds it jarring whenever the android uses his given name instead of the rank, but he shakes off the feeling to focus on what Nines is saying. “I like her a lot, but you seemed to have truly bonded that day at the cafe.”
As if sensing the topic, Einstein ventures into the living room and hops onto the couch curling into a ball next to Gavin. He reaches out to scratch her instinctively.
“See, this is what I meant,” says the android, looking at him. Gavin wants to retort that argument but then he notices Kirk sneaking in from the bedroom and freezes in anticipation. Nines’ gaze follows his and they quietly observe the cats. Kirk approaches the couch and looks up at Einstein, making a small sound. She unfurls and looks down at him before jumping back to the floor. Gavin holds his breath as the cats start sniffing each other before Einstein plops down onto the carpet and Kirk just curls himself around her and starts licking her head.
Gavin chuckles breathlessly.
“Cute as a dickens” he whispers.
“You’re cute,” he hears and looks up at Nines who looks just as surprised at the fact that he has said that out loud.
“You… think I’m cute?” Gavin asks and the android looks abashed.
“I mean… you’re a bit like a cat yourself, the way you behave…”
“Huh?!” Gavin gets up rapidly and approaches the android who holds up his hands in a humanely defensive gesture.
“I didn’t mean anything bad by that. But you are a cat person. And I like cats. And you,” the android confesses and all Gavin can do is just stand there and blink rapidly. The fuck just happened.
Nines looks very uncomfortable and starts to get up.
“Uh, I think I should go. I’ll leave Einstein to you for now and we can discuss when I should pick her up at work.”
This instantly sobers Gavin up.
“Don’t you fucking dare to fucking leave now you stupid robot,” he says loudly and Nines stops, his face showing sheer confusion. Gavin comes up closer to him and points a finger at his broad chest. “You just said you liked me. You’re in my house and you brought me a cat. I’d be a fucking fool if I let you leave right now,” he adds and before the android can do anything, Gavin grabs him by the front of his shirt and tugs him down for a kiss. It’s desperate, because he’s desperate, but after initial stillness on the android’s part, he starts to respond, his hands grabbing Gavins’ hips, his tongue sneaking into his partner’s mouth and Gavin just stops thinking.
They separate after what could be a few minutes, or a few hours. Gavin honestly can’t tell. He’s breathing heavily and Nines is still leaning over him, their foreheads touching.
“Seems like I really should stay, we have a lot to discuss,” the android finally says
“Yeah, you should,” Gavin responds and captures Nines’ mouth in another kiss.