Work Text:
If there was one thing RK900 could describe his co-worker and partner, it would be...
Actually that’s impossible. One word wasn’t enough to describe the complete monstrosity that was Detective Reed. There were too many words.
Arrogant, loud, hostile, rude, impolite, a little piece of-
“Shit.” The car stopped in front of a decent looking apartment that resided in a quiet, more secluded part of the city. Trees filled one side of the street while apartments and small shops that look too void to be even considered open filled the other.
The android didn’t really anticipate the detective choosing this residence as a place to settle down. Then again, the detective wasn’t really amiable with peers.
[DETECTIVE REED IS UNFRIENDLY]
“Fucking took a while to get here. Can’t imagine what the ride back to the precinct would be like,” Reed mumbled. The emptiness, yet somehow peacefulness, of the one way road was a large contrast to the half-hour long traffic fiasco they experienced on their way to their current location.
“We could have avoided the traffic jam if you had just listened to the directions I had provided you.” RK900 could see the yellow of his LED reflecting off the window as he was reviewing the footage of him reciting the quickest route to their destination and the detective giving him an informal hand gesture while proclaiming that he knows his way to his own damn home. Look where that event got them.
[DETECTIVE REED IS PRIDEFUL]
A scoff was all he received in reply.
Oh, he was mistaken. Although Detective Reed was facing away from him as he undid his seat belt, the android could see him making a face, mouthing and mimicking the exact same words RK900 just said in an unpleasant manner.
[DETECTIVE REED IS CHILDISH]
Yes, there were too many words.
In a few seconds, the detective was out of the car and marching into the building, not even sparing a glance behind. RK900 followed suit, entering the building and making his way through the lobby next to Reed in front of an elevator.
The doors of the elevator opened and they entered. RK900 watched Reed press the 10th floor mark and lean on the wall with shut eyes.
Apparently, Detective Reed could feel the android’s eyes on him since he suddenly sighed, “This is gonna be fucking worth it, plastic. The cold files I brought home from a few years ago have connections to our current case.”
RK900 listened as the detective began droning on about similar details and multiple possible theories.
Despite all the negativity perceived from Detective Reed, RK900 had to admit that his partner was a skilled detective. He was good with his job. That was respectable.
“-so fuck you, this is a gut feeling sorta thing.”
Granted, that respect was on thin ice.
Wait.
“Detective, you are basing all of this on a..gut feeling?-“
"Do you have a problem with that?" Reed asked, opening his eyes and turning to look at RK900. Feeling his LED spin rapidly, RK900 replied, "Yes. Detective Reed-"
"Oh my god."
"How many times must I remind you-"
"How many times must I meh meh meh-"
"About how these said gut feelings are incredible unreliab-"
“Bleh bleh bleh- Wow, Nines! The door's opening! Bye.”
Thin ice.
Reed walked out with RK900 a step behind him. They walked a long hallway, passing a flight of stairs and a slightly opened window. With a quick scan, RK900 could tell that the window was rusty, thus not able to close properly.
They stopped at a door that was labelled 107. RK900 assumed that this was the detective’s place. After all, this was his first time here. However, he began having his doubts when Reed was just standing in front of the door, seemingly having a staring contest with it.
Did the man forget where he resided?
That sadly wasn’t surprising.
[DETECTIVE REED IS FORGETFUL]
“Detective?”
That made Reed snap out of his trance, “Uh, yeah. Right.”
The detective began sifting through the pocket of his leather jacket, retrieving a set of keys and debunking RK900’s belief that Detective Reed has forgotten where he lived.
RK900 watched as Reed sorted through his keys. His patience was running out when the man was taking a tad bit too long, going through each key one by one. And, as the android observed, there were a lot of keys.
“Detective Reed, we don’t have much time. The Captain is expecting our return. Calculating the estimated time of arrival at-“
“Okay fine, fine!” Reed snapped, finally grabbing a hold of a singular key and jamming it into the lock.
Seeing the detective suddenly shift and unlock the doorknob at such an unsteady pace, RK900 began to suspect that Reed was stalling. As if he was unsure of something.
“Are you having doubts about the cold case and our current case being connected-“
“Fuck no,” Detective Reed spat. “I just” -He swallowed, removing the key from the lock and settling his hand on the doorknob- “remembered something.”
“And that is?”
A pause. A sigh. Then, silence.
Then, another sigh as Reed let go of the doorknob and ran his hand over his face.
“Detective, you are taking quite an amount of time in doing a simple task such as opening a door.”
“Fuck off. Just give me a minute, I’m getting there.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Wait- No!”
It was too late. RK900 already had his hand on the doorknob. When the door was opened, a blur of black zoomed past the android’s legs and into the hallway.
“ PURRYAN! ”
It took RK900 a blink to process everything. His hand was shoved away, the door was abruptly shut, the keys were clanked unto the floor, and he was pushed out of the way to lay flat on the wall.
Another blink made him process that the detective was no longer beside him but instead chasing what seems to be a black cat dashing down the hall, the patter of its paws contrasting the loud stomping of the human.
[DETECTIVE REED IS FAST]
But not fast enough, for the feline was twisting and escaping each and every grab the detective went for. The cat hopped over a hand and bounced from wall to wall, landing on Reed’s face and using it as a booster to leap unto the railway of the nearby staircase, further getting away.
“Fuck!” Reed cursed as he fell unto his behind. He quickly began getting up and then looked over at the android. “What the fuck are you doing?! Help me, goddammit!”
The exasperated demand made RK900 snap out of his shocked trance. He pushed himself off the wall and ran down the hall and down the stairs. Although he observed that Reed could apparently be a fast runner, he knew that he was faster.
Catching that feline would be simple.
While running, RK900 raised his audio sensitivity levels for specifically the patter of paws. As he did that, he could hear Reed behind him, cursing and skipping down a few steps in order to catch up.
“Purryan! Fuck!”
RK900 rounded the 3rd floor stairwell and caught sight of the black cat on the railing of a lower set of stairs, “Over here!”
The cat perked up and, with outstretched arms, RK900 went for a grab. But the cat dodged it and continued to speed down the railing.
Well then.
With his LED briefly blinking red, the android climbed unto the rails to slide after the cat as Reed groaned and jumped some steps to chase his pet.
“Down down down down down!”
The cat made a sharp U turn and clawed unto RK900’s pants, startling the android who then grabbed the rails to stop sliding and keep balance. Purryan hissed at the android and began climbing him, slipping past all the grabs and continuing its run up the staircase.
Reed, who was ways behind, groaned yet again when the cat slipped past him.
“Up up up up up!”
The two sprinted their way up until the 7th floor. Turning the corner, the android caught a glimpse of a black tail before it disappeared into another corner. Following after it, the android was caught off guard as the feline suddenly made a U turn once again and propelled itself to pounce on him.
Luckily, he ducked before the cat could land on his face.
Unluckily, the detective, being right behind RK900, didn’t.
“Motherfuc-mmph!”
The cat landed on Reed’s face yet again and then used it as a booster, again, to bounce back and land on RK900’s back.
Then it bounced again to land on Reed.
Then back to RK900.
Each pounce from Reed to RK900, the android was calculating which angle or position would be best to capture the cat.
However, it seemed that each and every calculation had failed to assist him in catching the erratic kitty.
[98% CHANCE CAT WILL JUMP TOWARDS RIGHT SHOULDER]
“STOP IT, YOU FUCKING SHIT STAKE-“
Failed.
“BURNT NUGGET ASS BITCH-“
[77% CHANCE CAT WILL JUMP TOWARDS CHEST]
“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS THE THANKS I GE-“
Failed.
“OW OW OW OW OW MOTHER OF FATHER-“
[2% CHANCE CAT WILL JUMP TOWARDS KNEES]
Alright, let’s go with reverse psy- Failed.
This was getting tedious.
The flying cat and the screaming human were so overwhelming. The numbers on the side of his HUD were just adding to the horde of catastrophe.
RK900 felt his eyebrow twitch. “Fuck it.”
He dismissed all the numbers, promptly shutting the calculations off. He took an unnecessary deep breath.
Gut feeling.
The cat leaped and RK900 caught it between his arms.
“HOLY SHIT,” Reed exhaled loudly.
The detective immediately yet carefully took the feline out of the android’s arms as soon as it finally calmed down. A huge grin that RK900 was sure he has never seen before was plastered unto the human’s face as he was panting, clearly exhausted from the scene.
[DETECTIVE REED IS PRETTY]
Woah. Where did that come from?
“Holy shit,” RK900 whispered. He blinked a few times, but the pop-up flashed brighter when the detective met his eyes.
“Language, tin can.” A smirk from the detective and RK900 was positive that some of his wires sparked because that look definitely did something to him. Which was extremely strange since that never really happened before.
“And you.” Reed’s attention shifted to the black cat in his arms, tone completely different. “You’re such a little fucker aren’t ya. Always giving papi a hard time. Why can’t you be like Ameowlia, huh? Why can’t you be like her, huh? Huh? Huh? Huh?! Achuchuchu...”
[DETECTIVE REED IS CUTE]
What is happening? Something was definitely going wrong in his circuits. Something is fuzzy, it’s fuzzy. Is that static?
Reed seemed to notice RK900’s silence because he snapped his head up and cut off his cooing. Cooing. The detective was cooing-
“Uh,” Reed mumbled with an awkward cough. “Right. The cold case. Let’s- Elevator. Let’s take the elevator.” He stiffly gestured towards the end of the hall.
RK900 gave his own stiff nod and followed Reed to the elevator with the cat resting on the human’s arms as if the previous fiasco never happened. They entered and when the doors closed, Reed sighed.
“Purryan always tries to escape whenever I arrive home.” Reed tried to fill the awkward silence. “I keep forgetting about that, but I did just take in him and his sister, Ameowlia, a few days ago. They’re both rascals but Ameowlia’s a little more laid back.” He shook his head as the doors dinged open, “What the fuck am I talking about, she’s a fucking angel compared to him.”
As they tread down the 10th floor hall once again, RK900 listened on to Reed absentmindedly talking about how he found the two cats. While he was speaking, RK900 could see a twinkle in his partner's eyes. He could see the detective's lips ever so slightly curl upward, the left side seeming to rise a little higher than the other. He could see just how relaxed Reed was compared to their time from the station to the capture of the cat as he spoke. He could see a pop-up flashing in his vision, wait what-
[DETECTIVE REED IS FASCINATING]
An error. This was probably just an error. A side effect from the slight stress of chasing the cat. Ignoring the slightly obnoxious flash, RK900 chose to set his gaze on the cat. While continuing to listen to his partner, he scanned the feline.
[BREED: BRITISH BOMBAY CAT]
[WEIGHT: 3.7 KG]
[EYE COLOR: GREEN]
RK900 exited the results and observed the cat on his own. Its eyes were indeed an emerald color. It was fascinating, entirely pleasing to look at. Furthermore, it seemed to be very familiar.
[DETECTIVE REED IS STUNNING]
Where the fuck are these coming from-
“By the, uh, way” -The human took a short glance at the android beside him- “I’m just gonna.. Thank you, I guess. For, like, helping me catch this.. Shit. So, yeah. Thanks. I guess. Crap.” He shook his head and spoke a bit softer, “I’m not good with this kind of shit.”
[DETECTIVE REED IS ADORABLE]
Okay, is Gavin the cause of this? There really must be an error in his system because why are the pop-ups suddenly like this and why is there fuzzy static in his wires?
“You’re welcome, Detective,” The android managed to get out despite his internal crisis.
“Ah, fuck.” His partner stopped walking. “I’ve been rambling about my fucking cats whereas I should be talking about the damn cold case-“
“No!” RK900 cut off, surprising even himself since all the pop-ups suddenly disappeared. He blinked and straightened up, “No,” He repeated much softer. “You talking about Purryan and Ameowlia is.. no problem at all."
“It’s quite-“ A stutter, why is he stuttering? The words 'fascinating' were flashing again. “-It’s fine. Please, tell me more about them. They followed you and then what?”
A stretch of silence was between that, it made RK900 feel like a fool for some reason. But then, that wide grin returned. That grin filled with, neither malice nor sarcasm, but pure mirth.
It was incredibly..
[ADORABLE]
[STUNNING]
[FASCINATING]
[CUTE]
[PRETTY]
[GORGEOUS]
[MARVELOUS]
[BEAMING]
[CHARMING]
[BEAUTIFUL]
Such a myriad of pop-ups appeared in RK900’s vision that he had to take a step back.
He hit something. A wall- no, a window. The rusty old thing opened from the impact, creaking loudly.
The sound had the cat perking up and snapping towards it. Suddenly, Purryan shimmied out of his owner’s grasps and leaped out of the window.
“PURRYAN!”
Another pop-up appeared in RK900’s vision as Gavin followed suit and jumped out of the window as well.
[DETECTIVE REED IS AN IDIOT]
Too many words indeed.