Work Text:
The first thing:
After deviancy, Nines still carries himself with his chest out, chin up, and shoulders squared. His blazer was always crisp and straight and there was never a hair out of place.
The android always appears to be put-together and polished. Gavin notices how Nines never misses a small detail in regards to his appearance. If he were human, Gavin would have assumed that he spent hours on his appearance every morning to look the way he did. He was nothing short of perfect.
When Nines is invited to go to gatherings with other officers, including Gavin, he still radiates a clean persona, even when he wears a black button up with the top buttons undone. Nines looks so much more casual in his “going out’ apparel, even with his hair a bit tousled and his shirt slightly wrinkled from all the movement he had done throughout the night.
The second thing:
When Gavin and Nines are out for a drink at some café the latter recommended they go to, Gavin notices how Nines’s lips wrap around the colorful straw of his drink.
He takes note of the pinkness of his lips and how they curl sheepishly when he’s being complimented or feeling embarrassed.
When he doesn’t like the taste of the first drink he tried out, a thirium-infused iced coffee, his lips flatten into an amusing-looking frown. He throws it out and orders a thirium-infused green tea instead. His lips part slightly into an impressed pout when he’s done taking his first sip. Gavin notices how his lips are shaped into a gentle smile as he asks if he could stock some in his house for when he comes over next time.
The third thing:
When Nines willingly brings Gavin his coffee, he doesn’t fail to notice the way his hand wraps around the coffee cup. He certainly doesn’t miss the feeling of their fingers brushing as Nines hands him it.
He notices the way his long fingers type across his keyboard swiftly as they work. The android possesses long, deft fingers and broad palms, ones that would absolutely engulf his own.
After Nines ditches his original Cyberlife-issued jacket and high-necked under shirt, Gavin does not miss how he occasionally brushes his fingers over the side of his neck when he’s embarrassed or sheepish. He also does not miss how Nines fiddles with his dress shirt sleeves when he's nervous or how he runs his fingers through his hair when he's stressed.
The fourth thing:
Gavin knows the android can destroy almost anything that comes across his path.
The human has seen Nines easily destroy porcelain coffee mugs and metal pipes without any effort. Gavin was one of the first to witness his strength when they had their first major argument three months into their professional partnership. The android had accidentally crushed his badge in anger.
After, Nines had become very careful when holding anything. Even if the material could handle some abuse, he was more aware of the items he was holding and why.
When Gavin had to be patched up immediately after a chase involving a suspect with a small knife, Nines cleaned and wrapped his wounds with a touch that was so gentle that he would be melting if he wasn’t panicking about the non-fatal wound.
Now, he notices how Nines scoops things up in his hands instead of just grabbing them, at times. When closing things such as doors, he takes the extra time to push them closed all the way, rather than slamming them the way most people did.
The fifth thing:
Nines was made for military combat in the arctic. His features display this clearly.
He was made with features very similar to Connor, an RK800 and therefore, his predecessor. However, wherever Connor had looked “soft,” Nines was “rough.”
This meant that he was taller with a sharper facial structure and even sharper eyes.
The most striking difference between the two androids had to be their eyes. While the RK800 was made with kind, brown eyes, Nines was made with narrowed, steel blue-gray eyes.
Gavin did not fail to note that this was why Nines was so much more unapproachable than his predecessor. With nearly-constantly narrowed eyes, Nines appeared to be concentrated and intimidating.
However, the harshness of his narrowed eyes melted into something kind when they crinkled with laughter or widened in surprise. Gavin noticed how much more expressive he was after deviancy. He noted how he would narrow them again when interrogating suspects, how he would look up with a new innocence when Gavin called him to look over something, and how he would squint them when jokingly betrayed by a simple, yet rude, statement.
In addition, he also had heterochromia: the inner ring of his iris was a cool gray and the outer ring was a deep blue.
Only when they had kissed for the first time did the human notice this minor detail. With their foreheads against each other, breaths heavy, and glassy eyes, Gavin saw the flecks of blue gray, and white swirl in the other’s eyes.
There was a new intensity Gavin had never witnessed in them. It made his stomach churn pleasantly and his heart hammer harder against his chest. The light pigment in his eyes made it easy to notice how his pupils dilated. He was stunning.
Gavin now knew the eyes by memory, as they were, in his perspective, most striking thing about his partner. They also happened to be the most beautiful.